Wuhan Zall 0-1 Beijing Guoan
Kanoute ’71
CSL Round 2
Attendance: 35,000
On a rainy day, Beijing Guoan were able to leave the capital of Hubei with all three points thanks to a header by Federic Kanoute, giving them a 1-0 victory.
Wuhan Zall will be frustrated that they could not take away points from a match where they came out attacking, having the majority of possession in the first half. Their opponents were very disorganized early on, as the manager made a number of changes, resting five from Guoan’s midweek ACL clash.
Wuhan’s best chance came in the 5th minute when the ball fell nicely for Santos Junior inside the box. The Brazilian found himself with enough space to rifle a shot that smashed the bar. Later, in the 11th minute Novak Martinovic rose up for a swinging corner to head the ball just over the bar. The Wuhan defender was left shaking his head, but did well to get the power on it that he did.
Beijing Guoan debutant Yegor Krimets was welcomed to the Chinese Super League with a yellow card in the 23rd minute for taking down Garra Dembele when Wuhan was on the counter attack.
The only chance for Beijing Guoan’s was in the 38th when Shao Jiayi hit the post from a free kick around 25 yards out. Beijing manager Aleksandar Stanojevic must have been happy with his side’s defense at half time however the Serbian obviously found the attack lacking. A double swap in the 58th minute of Joffre Guerron and Federic Kanoute replacing Mao Jianqing and Andre Lima gave Guoan some life going forward.
Immediately after coming on Guerron tried ambitiously to chip the Wuhan keeper from 18 yards out which went over the bar. Guerron was shown yellow in the 68th minute for leading with his elbow when trying to win a header with Wuhan captain Mei Fang. In the 71st minute Beijing broke the deadlock when Federic Kanoute headed the ball into the back of the Wuhan net. A missed corner was sent back into the direction of the Malian striker who from four yards out made no mistake.
Wuhan were shown hope, though, when Beijing went down to ten men in the 84th minute. Joffre Guerron was shown a second yellow for diving in the box. A horrible decision considering there was obvious contact and today, the CFA has acted quickly, suspending the referee for the error.
More shocking perhaps, in the dying seconds of the three minutes of stoppage time Wuhan defender Ke Zhao took two violent, intentional kicks at Guoan midfielder Darko Matic’s legs. The kicks were a classless move that led Lang Zheng came to come to the defense of his teammate, shoving Zhao and both teams broke out the handbags. The whistle was blown shortly after and newly promoted Wuhan is left still searching for their first points.
For Guoan, their on a bit of a roll, undefeated in the league and looking good in Asia as well, new manager Stanojevic has Guoan playing well, but their next match against Guangzhou Evergrande will be a serious test.
