Guizhou Renhe overcame their midweek Asian Champions League mediocrity with a goal just ten minutes from time to seal a valuable away victory to Liaoning.
CHINESE SUPER LEAGUE ROUND 3
Liaoning Whowin 1
Zhao Junzhe 16′
Guizhou Renhe 2
Yu Hai 42′
Krysztof Maczynski 80′
After coming off draws against Shanghai SIPG and Guangzhou R&F in their opening two games, Liaoning Whowin were looking to pick up all three points at home. Guizhou Renhe’s last league outing was a home win against Tianjin, and most recently an away draw against Group H leaders Ulsan in the AFC Champions league.
And based on this showing, Guizhou, last year’s China FA cup winners, are already bottom of their Champions League group after three games, and most likely to have shifted their focus to CSL performances from now on
The match started strong for Liaoning with a ball being played over the Guizhou defence for Aleksandar Jevtic. Unfortunately the former Jiangsu Sainty striker could only shoot wide.
Liaoning managed to strike first in the 16th minute when a cleared cross found captain Zhao Junzhe outside the box. The one club man was able to volley the ball off the far post leaving Guizhou keeper Zhang Lie no time to react.
Zhao Junzhe came close again in the 27th minute when he sent in a strong free kick that Zhang Lie could only punch away.
Guizhou were able to create their own chances, but not finish. Li Chunyu missed from 2 yards out, only able to softly knock the ball into Liaoning keeper Zhang Lu’s hands.
Minutes later Hyuri had a nice run with a shot that just bent wide before finding the back of the net.
It took a nice through ball by Guizhou midfielder Zvezdan Misimovic to find Yu Hai to score in the 42st minute.
Both teams came out sluggish after the break with things only picking up when Liaoning manager Gao Sheng made a double substitution in the 71st minute. Crowd favourite James Chamanga on for injured Ding Jie and Wang Bo on for Artyom Filiposyan.
Immediately Chamanga played a nice ball for Jevtic to cross in. Belgian target man Kevi Oris was unable to meet the ball in time though.
It was Guizhou in the 80th minute however who broke the deadlock after maintaining pressure. Hyuri made a nice run into the box sliding the ball across for Krysztof Maczynski to slot into the back of the next. Great play by the Brazilian leaving little else for Maczynski to do, but redirect the ball.
Guizhou almost got a third when Zhang Chenglin tried a bicycle kick striking that bounced into the box.
Liaoning expressed their frustrations with Wu Gaojun making a very late challenge on Hyuri. It earned him a yellow and Guizhou came away with all three points.
Liaoning’s next match will be away to Shandong Luneng while Guizhou host celler dwellers Shanghai Shenxin.
Guizhou Renhe: 12 Zhang Lie, 3 Zhang Chenglin, 4 Jonas Salley, 7 Krysztof Maczynski, 9 Li Chunyu, 10 Zvezdan Misimovic(86’ Yang Hao 29), 11 Hyuri(89’ Rao Weihui 31), 17 Sun Jihai, 21 Yu Hai, 23 Xavier Chen, 39 Chen Zijie
Liaoning Whowin: 1 Zhang Lu, 3 Wu Gaojun, 5 Yang Shanping, 8 Zhang Ye, 9 Zhao Junzhe(45’ Billy Celeski 14), 10 Kevin Oris, 16 Artyom Filiposyan(71’ Wang Bo 27), 17 Wang Liang, 20 Jin Taiyan, 21 Aleksandar Jevtic, 40 Ding Jie(71’ James Chamanga 12)
