The suspense of the Super League championship is rising again! Three derbys, two wins and one draw, Shenhua finally became a strong side!

Special correspondent Gan Hui reports In the "Shanghai Summit Derby" on the evening of August 17, Shenhua, who conceded a goal first, relied on a fierce counterattack in the last 20 minutes to complete a big reversal and defeated the opponent 3-1, ending the record of 16 consecutive wins in the Chinese Super League with the harbor, and narrowing the league points gap with the harbor to two points. In the three games against the harbor this season, Shenhua has achieved an unbeaten record of two wins and one draw, and in the case of being suppressed by the harbor before, Shenhua has finally become a strong side in the Shanghai derby this year.

Due to Manafa's injury, Yang Zexiang accumulated four yellows and was suspended, and head coach Slutsky had to make changes to the full-backs. In the end, Slutsky arranged for Chen Jinyi to be the left wing-back, pulling Xu Haoyang to the right to replace the vacancy left by Manafa and Yang Zexiang's inability to play.

Judging from the actual combat results, this arrangement of Slutsky is debatable. Xu Haoyang is a left-footed player with strong passing ability, and he was originally adjusted from midfield to left wing-back in order to play his left-footed crossing. But when he was temporarily moved to the right, he became a right-back with his backfoot and his ability to cross with his left foot was not fully utilised.

On the other side, Chen Jinyi, who came to Shenhua in the middle of the league, did not get stable playing time during this period, and after the game started, he was obviously not too adaptable to the fast pace of the derby. Therefore, after the opening, Shenhua's two wings not only failed to attack, but also appeared in danger many times.

Slutsky's starting arrangement did not work well, but fortunately, the game changed because Wei Zhen received a red card, and Harbour coach Muscater replaced Yusa and Vargas in a passive situation, which gave Shenhua a chance.

Especially in the 64th minute, Muscat replaced Vargas with Yang Shiyuan, and after the game, he explained that the substitution was due to Vargas's "muscle discomfort", but in fact, his substitution adjustment was also to strengthen the defense of the midfield. However, Vargas is a very important flashpoint for the harbor, and this game is very threatening to Shenhua's defense, and after he is gone, Shenhua's defense has fewer worries and can invest more troops to strengthen the attack.

Harbour have repeatedly made it through set-pieces this season. In this game, they once again relied on the exquisite coordination of corner kicks, and Wang Shenchao scored first.

Shenhua was able to win in the end, and Yu Hanchao's substitute appearance was very crucial. He came on the field in the 68th minute and kept attacking the opponent's right side. Yu Hanchao has very strong individual ability, and at the same time, Wei Zhen was sent off with a red card for stepping on the back of Fernando's calf from behind, and he fought with one less person for a long time, and the physical fitness of most of the players on the field has reached the limit.

At half-time, Slutsky told his players, "We have a numerical advantage, we must not rush, we must try to keep the ball at our feet." As the game draws to a close, the opponent's fitness will definitely drop significantly, as it is not easy for the team to be able to maintain a constant intensity in this kind of weather and intensity. ”

Shenhua's first two goals were related to Yu Hanchao, who contributed a pass and a shot. In the 79th minute, Shenhua relied on Teixeira, Wang Haijian and Eddie on the left side to pass the ball into the penalty area, and Yu Hanchao scored with a low right-footed shot to equalize the score.

Only 3 minutes later, it was Yu Hanchao who broke through on the left side and crossed, Andre rushed to the far point to score before Zhang Linpeng was in place, and Shenhua overtook the score 2-1.

After the game, Slutsky praised Han Chao and made it clear that he was an indispensable member of the team, "Yu Hanchao is the oldest player in our team, but Yu Hanchao behaves like a young man in every training session, strict and meticulous with himself, even though he has won a lot of honors. In addition to training, Yu Hanchao is also very good in terms of personality, and I think he is an indispensable member of our team, not only for our young players, but also for our whole team. ”

Originally, in the first half, Shenhua had a chance to equalize. Fernando held the ball and burst into the penalty area, and when Jiang Guangtai fell to the ground in the box, the ball hit his arm, and referee Ma Ning awarded a penalty after watching VAR from the sidelines.

Andre took the penalty, he still used the way of taking the penalty in the last game against Nantong Zhiyun, hoping to deceive the goalkeeper through the pause in the run-up process, but Yan Junling obviously had a certain amount of preparation, he did not move in advance, and Andre's penalty angle was too positive, the strength was insufficient, and Yan Junling saved.

It's a league title contest and if you miss a penalty, the pressure on Andre can be imagined. Fortunately, he made up for the disappointment of missing a penalty with a brace. In addition to receiving Yu Hanchao's pass and scoring a goal for Shenhua, he also scored again in injury time of the whole game, after receiving a pass from a teammate in the counterattack, directly killing the game and fixing the score of the game at 3-1.

This match is the third meeting between Shenhua and Harbour this season, after Shenhua won the "Super Cup" 1-0 victory and a 1-1 draw in the first leg of the league. With a 3-1 win in the second leg, Shenhua is unbeaten against a strong Harbour side so far this season, which is undoubtedly a big improvement for the team.

After the game, Slutsky confessed; 'It was nice to win and you realised there were some differences before and after the red card, but you saw that we created a lot of chances and missed a penalty. Thank you to the fans, the atmosphere is fantastic, I am very excited to see so many fans cheering for us in my career, and the victory is dedicated to the Shenhua fans. "In the whole game, Shenhua had 18 shots on goal and 9 on target, both higher than Harbour's 10 and 2.

This win also narrowed the league points gap between Shenhua and Harbour to two points. Speaking about the title race, Slutsky said: "Our focus is on the next FA Cup. With a two-point gap in the league, anything is possible. If we lose, with an eight-point gap, we may have little hope. A tie is a 5-point difference, and it's more difficult. The two-point gap is that anything is possible. ”