Beijing Guoan 6-0 Guangzhou R&F
Chinese Super League Matchday 24
Shao Jiayi 12′, Zhang Xizhe 37′ (pk), 56′, 85′, Utaka 69′, 90(+1)
Attendance: 33,968
It was a Beijing beat down for Sven and his Guangzhou R&F side, as Beijing Guoan put six on them, further solidifying the final Asian Champions League spot during a rare and beautiful Saturday afternoon match at Worker’s Stadium.
From the start, Guoan was on the attack, with multiple one touch chances falling to Peter Utaka, whose shots were just wide. This would be a trend that continued throughout the match, if Utaka would have been more on target, he would have likely had at least a hat trick and the result would have been all the more embarassing. Instead, it was Shao Jiayi who opened scoring, when he broke away from his defender and headed in a Zhang Xinxin cross.
Utaka’s speed was something R&F didn’t have answers for as the Guoan midfield was regularly able to find him wide open on runs through the Guangzhou defense. After beating his man on one such run, R&F defender Xu Bo was able to catch up with Utaka but knocked him down in the box. After having survived most of the first half only down by one, Xu’s shoulder barge meant he saw red and Zhang Xizhe converted the penalty to put Guoan up by two, it would be all green from then on.
The holes in the defense continued in the second half, a long Piao Cheng ball found Zhang wide open between the defense and he chipped the keeper for his second goal and Guoan’s third of the match. Zhang added one more late in the match from a bending free kick, the youngster is having a break out year, one behind Wu Lei for top Chinese scorer and having double digits in assists as well. There is no doubt Europe will be looking to sign him after this season.
Utaka, who struggled to find the target all match long, would manage two goals, though both on tap ins. The first came when Piao found Zhang again and he passed it off to the Nigerian, the second came off a rebound in the matches dying seconds.
Guangzhou will head back home licking their wounds after such a thorough defeat. Despite Sven getting R&F back on track, it was their third straight match without a win and sees them all but drop out of the Asian Champions League race. For Beijing, it was a memorable win and a declaration that Zhang Xizhe has arrived.
by bcheng
Category: Beijing Guoan, Chinese Super League, Guangzhou R&F
Tags: Peter Utaka, Piao Cheng, Zhang Xizhe
Really great to see Zhang get a hat trick! I make that four chinese hattricks for this season at least already followed by one for Jiang Ning and 2 for Wu Lei as well. It’s just a shame chinese players never seem to be able to keep their form up over the season e.g Wang Yongpo, Han Peng, Wang Yun and even Zhang Wenzhao (who managed 6 goals in 6 games recently for lowly Changchun). These players all looked like topscorer contenders at the start of the season but they seem to only score goals in patches through the season and I really wonder why this seems to be the case for chinese players. It could just be a confidence issue or to do with lack of match fitness or tactics, but either way I think in general this has been a great season for chinese players and the increased quality of the foreign imports genuinely seems to have made everyone else raise their game.
Was also going to ask what’s happened to one of my favourite players Piao Cheng this season? In the last couple of seasons he seems to have started really brightly but then faded (much like Zhang in the past actually) so was just interested to know how hes playing at the moment and whether he could get a call up to the national team at some point or if he’s struggling a bit.
Indeed for the past two years Piao started off very strong and fades away as the season goes on. He’s been moved into a defensive midfield position and has struggled with it at times, he’s having a very average season and one wonders if his development has been stunted, though he did make some great passes in the Fuli match. I think he’s likely to be considered for a call-up, but it probably won’t be for the Indonesia matches.
Ok thanks for the update, it’s a real shame because when he’s on song like in the Fuli match then he can play a bit like a chinese Andrea Pirlo but he just never seems to get any consistency it seems.
It was a “thorough defeat” but after the sending off (no complaints) Sven put on a central midfielder (Griffiths) to play centre back rather than last season’s captain Li Zhe who is a centre back. Also Davi got injured with about 10 minutes left but there were no subs left to replace him so for the final two goals R&F had 9 men. If Li Zhe had come on and Davi hadn’t got injured R&F wouldn’t have won but it would’ve made the score more respectable.
Also, for a side who dominated possession, territory and won 6-0 Beijing gave away a lot of fouls: 26 I think, compared to 14 by under pressure R&F. None of the Beijing fouls were really bad tackles, there were just lots of niggling little fouls that prevented R&F building any momentum or breaking at speed.