This round of the Chinese Super League gave us plenty of talking points and with no further ado, we’ll jump straight into the action.
The early kick-off on Saturday saw struggling Yanbian welcome Jinagsu Suning to their lair and it was the away side that came out on top. A goal from Roger Martinez after 14 minutes was the only thing to happen in the first half but in the second it all kicked off. Benjamin Moukandjo put Jiangsu 2-0 up and as Yanbian were pushing all their men forward to try and get back in the game two quick goals from Ramires, at 85 and 87 minutes, put the game to bed. The 4-0 win sees Jiangsu out of harm’s way of the relegation zone for now.
Now for the match that we’ve already spoiled a little with the headline. Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng hosted Shanghai SIPG on Saturday and after an uneventful first half this one did what the Yanbian-Jiangsu match did and kicked off in the second half. Nikica Jelavic scored almost straight from the kick off as he was played through by Mario Suarez and slotted the ball home after only 13 seconds! Lu Wenjun put SIPG level after 70 minutes with a nice effort from the edge of the box that dipped and swerved in to the far corner. But Guizhou were not done. As the game was about to go into added time Fan Wang let one fly from about 30 yards out and the ball found its way into the bottom corner to give Guizhou a 2-1 lead.
Guangzhou Evergrande said “thank you” to Guizhou and promptly went and thumped Shanghai Shenhua as the returning hero Muriqui scored his two first goals in the league just before and after half time to give Evergrande a 2-0 lead. Ricardo Goulart put the final nail in the Shanghai-coffin as he scored with six minutes remaining to give Evergrande a 3-0 win. Not a good day for football in Shanghai.
At the foot of the table Tianjin TEDA, second from bottom, and Liaoning Whowin, third from bottom, battled it out. A win for TEDA would see them leapfrog Liaoning while if Liaoning won they would open up a four point gap to TEDA. Naturally this match ended in a 1-1 draw. It started oh so well for TEDA as they scored after only two minutes and managed to keep that lead for 78 minutes before Liaoning spoilt the party and ensured that it’s still all the same at the bottom.
In the fight for the Champions League places Hebei China Fortune played Beijing Guoan on Saturday while on Sunday Guangzhou R&F played Shandong Luneng and Tianjin Quanjian played Changchun Yatai.
The big losers here are Tianjin as they had what looked like the easiest matchup against mid-table Changchun. They could however barely save a draw as it took an Anthony Modeste 95th minute equaliser to give them a 1-1 draw.
1-1 was also the result in the match between Guangzhou R&F and Shandong as a two minute period saw both teams score once. Eran Zahavi opened the scoreline for R&F from a penalty after 62 minutes while Graziano Pelle equalised for Shandong after 64 minutes.
The game on Saturday had more to it as once again it was the second half that proved worth watching. Ezequiel Lavezzi scored from a penalty after 65 minutes and Li Hang put the game to bed just two minutes from the final whistle as Hebei won 2-0 and jumped into fourth place at the same amount of points as third placed Shandong.
The final match of this round saw mid-table Chongqing Lifan and Henan Jianye, who are fighting to stay out of the relegation battle, yet it was a 0-0 draw.