R&F fail to take their chances against physical Liaoning

Guangzhou R&F and Liaoning played out a 0-0 draw at Yuexiushan in what was a more exciting game than the scoreline suggests. Jin Taiyan missed Liaoning’s best chance but had any of the four chances which fell to R&F’s captain Zhang Yaokun dropped to a forward the Cantonese side would have won.

The opening exchanges brought long shots for R&F but nothing from inside the penalty area, partly because of Liaoning’s robust defending with both Zhang Ye and Zhao Junzhe lucky to see out the full 90 minutes after each making rash tackles. Midway through the first half Zhang Ye flattened Zhang Yuan immediately after receiving his first yellow card and should’ve been sent off.

New signing Kevin Oris had a good game for Liaoning and almost opened the scoring after half an hour but Chang Yuelei tipped his powerfully struck half-volley over the bar. Davi was influential for the hosts throughout and shortly after flashed a shot just wide before trying and failing to repeat his goal from distance against Tianjin.

Liaoning had the best chance of the game as half time approached after Tang Miao’s miss-kick allowed Jin Taiyan to race clear. Cheng partly blocked the midfielder’s shot but it would have gone in anyway had not Jiang Zhipeng made a sliding clearance off the line to save the blue and whites.

A typically uncompromising tackle from Liaoning who were lucky to finish with 11 men on the field

The second half brought more physical defence from Liaoning, especially their strong centre back pairing, as R&F continued to press. Unfortunately for the Cantonese four of their chances fell to Zhang Yaokun who showed why he is a centre back rather than centre forward by wasting all four them, including blazing a Zhang Yuan cut back over the bar although in this he was only copying Davi’s earlier miss.

On his home debut, striker Hamdallah played well but not well enough to justify his large price tag and was taken off for Zhang Shuo. Sven also turned to substitutes Lu Lin and Chang Feiya but neither of them could make an impact and it was left back Jiang who had a shot well saved at the near post.

Liaoning’s fans had travelled down to Guangzhou in numbers but their side gave them little to shout about in attack as ex-Jiangsu man Jevtic was largely anonymous despite the promise shown by Oris. Their defence held firm though and they left Yuexiushan with a hard earned point. Guangzhou R&F will definitely consider it a case of two points dropped because they had the bulk of the play but couldn’t make their chances count. Next weekend the blue and whites travel to Shanghai to play Shenxin as both sides look for their first win of the season.

Guangzhou R & F: 1 – Cheng Yuelei; 11 – Jiang Zhipeng, 5 – Zhang Yaokun 15 – Jang Hyun-Soo 20 – Tang Miao; 8 – park Jong-Woo 36 – Zhu Baojie (70 minutes 29 – Zhang Shuo); 18 – Zhang Yuan, 10 – Davi, 19 – Wang Xiaolong (63 minutes 23 – Lu Lin); 9 – Aberazzak Hamdallah  (81 minutes 21 – Chang Feiya)

Liaoning: 1 – Zhang Lu; 40 – Ding Jie (79 minutes 14 – Billy Celeski), 4 – Sun Shilin, 5 – Yangshan Ping, 17 – Wang Liang (79 minutes 3 – Wugao Jun); 8 – Zhang Ye, 9 – Zhao Junzhe; 20 – Jintai Yan, 16 – Artyom Filiposyan, 21 – Alexsander Jevtic; 10 – Kevin Oris