On a spring-like April 8, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) officially unveiled the schedule for the first 14 rounds of the first phase of the Chinese Super League (CSL) for the 2021 season. The Wuhan soccer team will then have their first showdown of the season on April 23rd in the evening against a team from Hebei.
The new season of the Chinese Super League will be divided into three stages as planned by the Football Association. In the first stage, the matches will be played in Guangzhou and Suzhou with a double round-robin system. Wuhan is placed in Group B of the Suzhou tournament, along with Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei, Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Dalian Ren and newly promoted Changchun Yatai. In order to better prepare for the final four rounds of the upcoming Asian Round of 40 in the World Qualifiers, the first stage was subdivided into two phases: the first five rounds were played from April 20 to May 17, while the last nine rounds were concentrated from June 21 to August 5.
Looking at the schedule, Wuhan's opponents in the first five rounds are Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan. Shenhua in the reinforcement action frequently, the introduction of Basogo, Adrian and other strength players, plus the captain Wu Xi, the overall strength should not be underestimated. Guoan also made gains in internal reinforcements, and the strength of both teams is slightly better than Wuhan. Hebei, Changchun Yatai and Tianjin Jinmen Tiger may not be as strong as Wuhan. Especially Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, due to the hasty completion of the access procedures, personnel is not complete, foreign aid temporarily can not be in place, the strength of doubt. Hebei team has already made large-scale personnel adjustments due to the investor's financial problems, Toure, Luo Senwen and others have been transferred. Changchun Yatai although in the warm-up matches in the performance is good, but its real strength in the Chinese Super League has yet to be tested.
Facing five opponents in the first stage, Wuhan is expected to bring surprises with its current lineup. Currently, three foreign aiders, Carrizo and Mbia, have returned to the team for training, while Evra is in quarantine in Shanghai and is expected to join the team around the 17th. This means that Wuhan will have three foreigners playing in the first phase of the tournament. Although Rafael and Baptiste, who are in Brazil, will not be able to participate in the first phase of the tournament due to the epidemic, the addition of Huang Zichang and others will bring new vitality to the team.
According to the plan, Wuhan team will hold the departure ceremony in Han on the 13th, and then the team will go to Suzhou to prepare for the new season. In order to better hone their skills and tactics and confirm their starting lineup, Wuhan has recently played a number of warm-up matches.
This afternoon, Wuhan team played a warm-up match with Wuhan Sanzhen in the base. With the free kick of captain Li Xing, Wuhan won 1-0. It is worth mentioning that Wuhan sent different lineups in the first and second halves, especially after the rotation of the midfield and backfield, the overall strength is still strong, showing a deep bench depth, which also provides more options for Li Xiaopeng to deal with the intensive schedule of the tournament system.
