Tianjin misses opportunity; Henan and Shenxin keep things tight at the bottom

Tianjin failed to seize their chance to move up the table over the weekend, drawing 1-1 against Dalian Shide. Despite the international break, there were three fixtures over the weekend, this match being the only one that wasn’t a game in hand situation.

Early on in the first half, it was Sjoerd Ars setting up Mao Biao for a excellent scoring chance, though Mao was ruled to be offside. It was the best scoring opportunity of the first 20 minutes of the match and Dalian would make the home side pay just over the half hour mark when a well placed Zhao Mingjian long ball picked up Martin Kamburov between defenders, the goalie overplayed the ball, allowing the big Bulgarian striker to one touch it off the outside of his foot for a quality goal.

Tianjin would earn an equalizer in the final minute of first half added time, Ars was once again involved in the play. Much like the Dalian goal, the Tianjin goal was due to an excellent ball and a defensive mishap, but it required a scramble before Ars finally got on the end of it.

In the second half, both sides had their chances, but neither could capitalize and so they split the points. The result means Tianjin still have a bit of work if they want to get into the fight for the final Asian Champions League spot.

The other two matches were games in hand and involved the two relegation sides. Henan picked themselves up from the bottom of the table with an 87th minute goal which allowed them to take all three points from Shandong Luneng in a 2-1 victory. Down in Shanghai, Shenxin managed to add a point in a 2-2 draw against Changchun Yatai