This round of the Super League saw plenty of action, both in terms of goals and red cards as almost all of the top teams did what they were supposed to. Almost. But let’s start at the beginning, as most stories do. Let’s go back to Saturday.
The first match of the round saw Shandong Luneng take on Shanghai Shenhua and this game was never an even matchup. The score at half time was 3-0 to Shandong and an own goal from Shenhua ten minutes into the second half made sure there was no way back. To make matters worse Cong Zhen got sent off with his second yellow card and Graziano Pelle scored his second for the day a minute before the end to settle the score at 5-0.
The first of the two early kick-offs on Sunday saw Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng put a spanner in the works for Guangzhou R&F by taking a great 2-0 victory. Ruben Castro scored the first and Sölvi Ottesen managed to get himself sent off with two yellow cards in six minutes just before half-time. Min Junlin put the game to rest just before the hour mark and Guizhou have now won four in a row.
The second early kick-off saw the final red card of the round appear as Anzur Ismailov got sent off before half-time but the rest of the action happened in the second. Bubacarr Trawally opened the scoring for Yanbian and they looked to take their first win in what seemed like forever until Odion Ighalo appeared with four minutes to go to put Changchun level and leave Yanbian at the bottom.
In the main part of the round later on Sunday, three big games were on the cards. Shanghai SIPG had to fight extremely hard to get the win against Chongqing Lifan as the mid-table side equalised with three minutes to go, only for Wu Lei to break their hearts and score the winner a minute later in the 3-2 match.
Guangzhou Evergrande saw off Henan Jianye in easy fashion as they won 2-1. Evergrande led 1-0 just after half-time and put one more in four minutes before the end. Borek Dockal scored a consolation goal four minutes into extra time.
The last of the big games on Sunday was Beijing Guoan playing Liaonin Whowin. Beijing could go into the Champions League spots with a win while Liaoning could get a small gap to the relegation spots. Unfortunately for Liaoning they never showed up. Beijing ran rampant and scored four goals, including yet another brace from Jonathan Soriano in the 4-0 win.
The final game was played yesterday and Ezequiel Lavezzi showed Tianjin TEDA how to play football as he scored twice to give Hebei a 2-0 win over their relegation threatened opponents.
If you’re wondering where the Tianjin Quanjian – Jiangsu Suning matchup is, that has been postponed to the 28th of August.