On October 13th, the three strongest teams in the southern Guangdong region - Guangzhou City, Guangzhou and Shenzhen - immediately went into the preparation for the 14th round of the Chinese Super League after a short break in order to fight for the relegation qualification. Compared to Shenzhen, Wuhan Changjiang's relegation situation looks more tricky.
After the first 20 rounds of the season, Hebei is at the bottom of the table with 3 points, Guangzhou City is second with 11 points, Guangzhou is third with 12 points and Wuhan Changjiang is fourth with 17 points. The three relegation spots this season seem to be coming from these four teams. Hebei, who suffered a 13th consecutive loss, is almost a lock for a relegation spot, while Guangzhou, Guangzhou City and Wuhan Changjiang will fight for a promotion spot in the next 14 rounds of matches.
Shenzhen team prepares for the game in advance, aiming to solidify the relegation line as soon as possible. Guangzhou and Guangzhou City, on the other hand, will need to improve their form while formulating a clear relegation strategy. For both teams, not only do they need to outperform their city rivals, but also Wuhan Changjiang in order to secure relegation.
From a side-by-side comparison, although Wuhan Changjiang currently has 17 points, it suffered a six-game losing streak after losing 0-3 to Zhejiang on Oct. 9 and has won only one of its last 12 games, slipping to the bottom four and just five points above Guangzhou.
Guangzhou won 6 points in the first 20 rounds when coached by Liu Zhiyu. After Zheng Zhi's return, the team got 6 points in 8 rounds, including 3 points against Shenzhu, but then they didn't win in 7 consecutive rounds, and only got 3 draws against Dalian Ren, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger and Changchun Yatai. Although the scoring rate is higher than Wuhan Changjiang, Guangzhou is still deep in the relegation quagmire.
Guangzhou City gained only 3 points in the first 15 rounds of matches due to the violation of Dalian Ren's U23 player usage. After Li Wei Feng took over the team, they won 2, drew 2 and lost 1 in the next 5 rounds of matches, getting 8 points. Currently Guangzhou City has 11 points, only 1 point less than Guangzhou, which is undoubtedly the best form among these three teams in terms of recent performance.
It is worth mentioning that Guangzhou City's two matches against Hebei have yet to be played, while Wuhan Changjiang and Guangzhou have already completed their matches against Hebei. If Guangzhou City can seize the opportunity of the two matches with Hebei after the restart of the league, they will undoubtedly be close to Wuhan Changjiang in terms of points. In a sense, Guangzhou City has a much better chance of "going to the shore" over Wuhan Changjiang than Guangzhou.
The next 14 rounds of the Chinese Super League will begin on October 25, with a round of fixtures every four or five days. A direct clash between Guangzhou City, Guangzhou and Wuhan Changjiang will determine the direction of relegation for each team. As the match between Wuhan Changjiang and Guangzhou has already taken place in the first phase of the league, the next match between Guangzhou City and Guangzhou, and the home match between Wuhan Changjiang and Guangzhou City will be the "battle of survival" to determine the relationship between these three teams.
It is reported that Guangzhou City team has a clear understanding of the next 14 rounds of the Super League relegation road, the above two competitions and the two rounds of the meeting with Hebei, is their final stage of the Super League "decisive battle". Of course, this does not mean that the team will completely relax their vigilance in other games, because no one can guarantee that the opponent will not get points in other games.
Shenzhen coach Zhang Xiaorui said after the match with Guangzhou City that 27-28 points in this year's Chinese Super League would be enough for relegation. If we look at this criteria, Guangzhou, with 12 points, needs to get at least 15 to 16 points in the next 14 rounds of matches in order to be relegated. Guangzhou City will need at least 16 to 17 points and Wuhan Changjiang will need 10 to 11 points. The relegation trio, staring only at the other two relegation rivals, is not all safe and reasonable.
Of course, now 21 points ranked fifth from the bottom of the Shenzhen team and 22 points ranked sixth from the bottom of the Dalian People's team also has a certain risk, these teams want to go to the shore early also need to quickly get the desired points.
