Tevez fires Shenhua past Jiangsu
Print Edition
SHANGHAI fans enjoyed a cheerful weekend as both Greenland Shenhua and SIPG scored impressive home victories during the opening round of the 2017 Chinese Super League, thanks to impressive performances from their big foreign buys.
Carlos Tevez, reportedly the best-paid player in the world, contributed a goal and an assist in Shenhua’s 4-0 romp over Jiangsu Suning at Hongkou Football Stadium last night. The Argentina striker started alongside Fredy Guarin and captain Giovanni Moreno while Nigeria striker Obafemi Martins had to sit out of Gus Poyet’s line-up as the CSL has limited the number of foreign players allowed for each match to three.
Jiangsu’s started its foreign trio of Alex Teixeira, Roger Martinez and Hong Jeong-ho. However, Colombia striker Martinez picked up an injury shortly after kick-off, and was replaced by Ji Xiang in the 10th minute.
Tevez played an active role in his debut league match for the hosts. His freekick in the 15th found Moreno at the far end of Suning’s goal, and the latter scored the opener with a header. The second goal came in the 34th when Shenhua won a penalty for Hong Zhenghao’s handball in the box. Tevez sealed his first league goal from the spot.
Tevez and Guarin were denied by the impressive Gu Chao in the Jiangsu goal in the second half. It was left to second-half substitute Mao Jianqing to score Shenhua’s third goal in the 78th — a close-range shot. Moreno then added another in the 85th to fix the final score at 4-0. Jiangsu players lost control of their emotion in added time, as Teixeira picked up a red card for hitting Shenhua’s Wang Yun in the face. It was Shenhua’s biggest ever victory over Jiangsu.
In a Saturday match, Elkeson’s hat trick helped SIPG beat Lee Jang-soo’s Changchun Yatai 5-1 at Shanghai Stadium.
Andre Villas-Boas decided to retain his Brazilian trio and dropped Uzbekistan midfielder Odil Ahmedov under the foreign player restriction. Young midfielder Zhang Huachen, who turns 19 next week, also started as the CSL requires each team to start with at least one U23 player this year.
The hosts almost had a dream start when local striker Wu Lei found the back of the net on a pass from Brazilian Oscar just 5 minutes into kickoff, which was ruled offside. It was Changchun which scored the opener in the 26th when defender Fan Xiaodong’s long-range shot from outside the box fell into the top right corner of SIPG’s goal.
Villas-Boas then replaced Zhang with Yu Hai in the 30th. Three minutes later, Oscar was tackled by Fan and Changchun goalie Wu Yake in the box. Hulk scored the equalizer for SIPG from the penalty spot.
Fellow Brazilian Elkeson then took over, scoring his hat-trick by the 58th as SIPG led 4-1.
Wu still had time to get his name on the scoresheet, scoring SIPG’s fifth goal in injury time.
In other CSL first-round matches, defending champion Guangzhou Evergrande overcame Beijing Guo’an 2-1, thanks to a brace from Paulinho. Guangzhou R&F beat newcomer Tianjin Quanjian 2-0 at home.
Quanjian’s Italian coach Fabio Cannavaro said Guangzhou’s pitch condition limited the performance of its new Brazil striker Alexandre Pato, for whom Tianjin paid Villarreal 15.5 million pounds (US$19.1 million).
Felix Magath’s Shandong Luneng won 2-0 over Tianjin Teda but there was disappointment for Manuel Pellegrini, who saw his Hebei China Fortune side held 0-0 by Henan Jianye.
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