Before we start summarising the 26th Round of the Chinese Super League for you we will mention that the game between Shanghai Shenhua and Shandong Luneng that was postponed in Round 7 due to the fire at the Hongkou Stadium was played in the midweek. It ended in an anticlimactic 0-0 draw.
So then, moving on to this weekend’s action. We start on Friday where two games took place. Beijing Guoan has suffered a slump in form recently and continued said slump with a loss to Shanghai SIPG thanks to an early Oscar goal in the 13th minute.
In the other Friday game, league leaders Guangzhou Evergrande took on mid-table Chongqing Lifan. Chongqing took the lead before a Gao Lin brace on either side of half-time saw Evergrande climb into the driver seat. Lifan battled back, however, and managed to get one point thanks to Fernandinho’s equaliser in the 79th minute.
On Saturday the early kickoff saw Yanbian Funde and Liaoning Whowin battle it out to avoid being bottom of the league and it was Yanbian who could cheer as they ran out 1-0 winners and would climb out of the relegation zone for the first time in quite a while, at least for a few hours as Tianjin TEDA were set to play the Tianjin derby a little later.
And what a game that turned out to be. Summer arrival Frank Acheampong, who’s on loan from Belgium side Anderlecht, scored a brace within one minute as TEDA took a 2-0 lead going into half-time. They never looked back from that and despite a late Quanjian goal they came out as 4-1 winners. This means that TEDA remains above the drop zone for now, but they are on the same points as Yanbian and only two points ahead of Liaoning.
Another surprising result was Shanghai Shenhua’s outclassing of Guangzhou R&F. A Giovanni Moreno brace and a Fredy Guarin goal meant that Xiao Zhi’s lone goal had nothing to say and Shenhua won 3-1.
The last game on Saturday saw Jiangsu Suning suffer a bitter loss as Ruben Castro scored in extra time to send Guizhou Hengfeng Zhicheng into seventh and a dark horse contender to the Champions League spot.
Yesterday, the early game saw mid-table Changchun Yatai draw 0-0 with third-placed Hebei China Fortune before Henan Jianye finished off a round full off weird results as they beat Champions League-chasing Shandong Luneng 2-1, with goals in the first half from Ricardo Vaz Te and Hu Jinghang securing the win for the mid-table side.