As night falls, former Guoan star Xu Liang appeared as a guest on the July 12 episode of Football 100 on Beijing's Winter Olympics Channel, discussing the hot topics of the Europa League and the latest developments of Guoan with team manager Bilic via a link-up. The guests expressed caution about the unknown journey of the new Chinese Super League (CSL) season, with Xu Liang saying bluntly, "We might as well take it easy in this year's CSL."
When talking about Italy beating England to win the title, Xu Liang analyzed, "England's performance in the semi-final was too conservative and lacked that exciting style of soccer, while Italy showed more spectacle. England's forward line didn't play as well as it should have and they relied on defense to get to the final, but from the perspective of soccer spectacle, Italy deserved the title more."
Host Wei Yidong then mentioned that Chinese soccer can learn a lot from Italy. Xu Liang responded, "The Italian team is relatively comprehensive, we can learn, but whether we can achieve their execution is a problem. We certainly have the spirit of hard work, but spirit alone is not enough. Whether we can translate those spirits into actual performance on the pitch is the key."
The program then focuses on the Chinese Super League, and Xu Liang admits, "No one has ever really experienced a season like this. The Suzhou game itself is highly competitive, so we might as well relax and not have to be too competitive in this year's league." Talking about the Hebei team that Guoan will face soon, the program linked up with former Hebei manager Xie Feng, who commented, "Hebei's current financial situation is worrisome, the players' motivation is not high, and I'm not too optimistic about their performance in the second stage." Xu Liang, on the other hand, said, "It's not very difficult for Guoan to win, with the return of national team players, high team morale and strength, taking three points is no big deal."
