Evergrande, SIPG’s ‘toughest’ opponent
Print Edition
SHANGHAI SIPG head coach Andre Villas-Boas has described Guangzhou Evergrande as one of the most difficult opponents for his team in this year’s AFC Champions League.
The teams will stage a “Chinese derby” when they face off in the 2-leg quarterfinals of this year’s Asian tournament. SIPG beat another Chinese Super League team Jiangsu Suning while Evergrande edged Japan’s Kashima Antlers in the last 16.
“Of course it’s a pity that we don’t get to play an international team (in the last 8),” said Villas-Boas. “Japanese teams playing against each other and Chinese teams against each other, I don’t think it’s very interesting for the AFC Champions League.
“But that’s the draw we have. We are playing a team which is both champion of China and an AFC champion. If we want do well in the competition, we have to win against this team. If we are able to go past them, we have a big chance of winning the competition.”
Villas-Boas was talking during the club’s first public open day of the season. More than 100 SIPG fans were invited to the club’s training base in Pudong’s Century Park yesterday morning and watched the team’s open training.
The coaches and players have just come back from a one-week holiday, though national team players Wu Lei, Wang Shenchao and Yan Junling, as well as Uzbekistan midfielder Odil Ahmedov are yet to return due to national team duties.
SIPG sits second in the 16-team CSL standing on 29 points from 12 matches — two points short of Luiz Felipe Scolari’s Evergrande. It visits Guangzhou R&F in the CSL on Sunday. Its first leg ACL quarterfinal against Evergrande is scheduled in Shanghai on August 22.
Meanwhile, Henan Jianye has named Bulgarian Yasen Petrov as its new manager.
Henan’s former head coach Jia Xiuquan quit on June 3, taking responsibility for the team’s poor performance this year. Henan shares second-to-last place in the CSL standing with Jiangsu, which just named Fabio Capello as its new manager.
Petrov coached Shijiazhuang Yongchang from 2014 to 2016 before the team was relegated to the second-tier Chinese League One at the end of 2016 season. He took over another League One club Beijing Enterprises this year but was replaced by former Chinese national team coach Gao Hongbo in April.
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