It seems that Qingdao is vulnerable this year due to the wage issue, but it's not true. The Chinese Super League team still has a significant advantage over the Chinese First Division team. It is reported that Qingdao has prepared a generous "relegation" bonus for the play-offs, and head coach Yang Weijian has said that "there is no choice but to win the play-offs". For the Zhejiang team, they will have to overcome a lot of difficulties in order to qualify for the next season's Chinese Super League through the play-offs.
Although Qingdao only ended up finishing 16th in the Chinese Super League, they have played against strong teams such as Shandong Luneng, Shanghai Harbor and Guangzhou this season. The Zhejiang team, on the other hand, faced many opponents in the Central League A who did not even have foreign players, and such matches were obviously not enough exercise for the Zhejiang team. How to improve the team's game tempo to adapt to the fast pace of the Chinese Super League team has become the first hurdle that Zhejiang needs to overcome.
Qingdao has just finished the Chinese Super League and is still in league form. In contrast, 17 days have passed since Zhejiang's last match, and since most of the Central League 1 teams have already taken a vacation and the Super League teams continue to play league matches, Zhejiang could only play warm-up matches against the U21 team to maintain their competitive status. Immediately after the opponent for the play-offs was determined, coach Jordy and his team played Qingdao's video for the players, hoping to make up for the disadvantage in form by increasing their understanding of the opponent.
This year's Chinese League A has played a record 34 rounds of matches, with Zhejiang playing all four stages of the tournament in Meizhou, where they have spent almost all of the months. This season's Chinese Super League has been split into several parts, and only 22 rounds have been played, also "making history", but with the least number of rounds. Obviously, the Zhejiang team is more tired than the Qingdao team.
Foreigner Mu Xiekui was injured before the final round of the league, and Frank also strained during the game, both of them are now training individually under the guidance of the rehabilitator. According to the current recovery situation, Mu Xiekui's ability to participate in the play-offs is still uncertain. As the golden boot of the Central League, Mu Xiekui will be a huge loss for Zhejiang if he can't play.
