Shanghai Shenhua have encountered a real buzz about the CFA cup in northern China – although not in the way they may have imagined.
The club are mystified as to why their training sessions ahead of their CFA cup clash against Tianjin are being interupted by a plauge of mosquitoes.
According to a Sina Sports report, mosquitoes nesting in the turf at Tianjin’s TEDA stadium have been emerging as the visiting players are put through their paces, with the switching on of the floodlights “acting as a signal” for the blood-sucking insects to begin feasting.
The report says the players have had great difficulty dealing with the pests, with one insect even enterting a Shenhua squad member’s mouth whilst he was in mid-speech. A source inside Shenhua told Sina Sports that they were dumbfounded as to how their could be so many mosquitoes at this time of year in northern China when the temperature is around 10c.
The affair has created quite a spectacle, according to the report, with background staff out on the pitch waving their arms around energetically trying to keep the insects away from the Shenhua players.
