Liaoning’s foreign trio delivers once again

Liaoning Whowin 3-1 Hangzhou Greentown
Chinese Super League Round 5
Edu 35′, Trifunović 59′, Chamanga 63′; Cao Xuan 87′
Attendance: 21,288

Liaoning is off to a flying start in 2013, opening up the season on a role, undefeated through five matches and that trend continued Sunday in Shenyang.

Much like last weekend, Zhang Lu played a massive role in keeping his side in the match, especially early as they got off to a slow start. Early on, Davy Claude Angan had a great chance in front of the goal, though Zhang got a foot to it. Liaoning started attacking, often through Jin Taiyan, his best chance in the 25th minute though his shot flew over the crossbar.

That was the beginning of sustained pressure on the Hangzhou keeper, Jiang Bo, on the half hour mark, a defensive breakdown led to a great chance for Zhao Junzhe, but Jiang made a nice save. Liaoning couldn’t be kept off the board, though, minutes later, Edu got into space and had an excellent scoring chance, but was taken down from behind by a Hangzhou defender, leading to a penalty kick. He converted it to put Liaoning up by one at the half.

The home side continued their pressure in the second half, with Ding Jie coming close in the opening minutes. It was around the hour mark that things really opened up, first with a great goal by Miloš Trifunović, keeping his cool and burying one to double Liaoning’s lead. On the other side of the hour mark, it was Jin setting up James Chamanga for a third goal.

Chamanga almost added to his tally on an 85th minute corner kick, but his header was cleared off the line by Hangzhou. Moments later, the Zhejiang side finally produced a response when Cao Xuan scored on a corner. The goal was the one downside of the match and continues with an upsetting trend of Liaoning allowing goals in the final five minutes of matches.

Things aren’t going to get easier for the club as this coming weekend they travel to Jinan to face off against Shandong Luneng and former LiaoZu star, Yang Xu.