After the victory in the derby, there will be a big battle between Beijing and Shanghai, and Shenhua, who has consumed a lot of money, needs to grab a good start

Special correspondent Gan Hui reports Without much time to reminisce about the reversal of the victory over the harbor, Shanghai Shenhua immediately switched to the game of preparing for Guoan. On August 22, Shenhua and Guoan will play the FA Cup quarterfinals at Shanghai Stadium.

Asked at the press conference after the Harbour win what he thought of the league title race, Slutsky began by talking about this week's FA Cup: "To be honest, our focus is on the next FA Cup at the moment. Later, he said, "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. With a difference of 2 points, anything is possible. ”

Slutsky is a relatively straightforward manager. Geng until, Teixeira, Amadou, Gao Tianyi and Yang Zexiang and other 3 yellows for a long time, but he did not use the overall strength of the opponent to "shuffle" in batches, as a result, Teixeira against Guoan accumulated 4 yellow suspension, Yang Zexiang derby suspension, Amadou and Gao Tianyi will be suspended in the away game against the Zhejiang team, which has brought certain difficulties to themselves. Therefore, there is every reason to believe that Slutsky's statement that "our current focus is on the next FA Cup" is not a lie.

In the 21st round of the league, Shenhua was a guest at Gongti and finally suffered a stunner, and while suffering the first defeat of the 2024 season, the league points gap with Harbour widened from the original 2 points to 5 points. Although they are currently far ahead of Guoan in the standings, Shenhua have yet to beat Guoan in the two league meetings this season, and this time the cup is met again, and Slutsky needs to use his tactical brains.

As a direct dialogue between the top two of the season's tables, the Shanghai derby is undoubtedly much more expensive than many other Chinese Super League games. In the second half, the two teams made a total of seven substitutions, four of which were due to excessive physical exertion or injuries to the players.

In addition, there were 11 minutes of stoppage time in the first half and seven minutes in the second half, which equates to a total of about 110 minutes played by both teams. Although Shanghai bid farewell to the ultra-high temperature of about 40 degrees Celsius in the previous stage, the temperature was still not low on the day of the competition. In the stands, the fans sat and watched the game sweating, not to mention the players who were fighting fiercely on the field. Therefore, after this big battle, the team's consumption can be imagined.

The FA Cup match with Guoan was only 4 days apart from this "peak derby", and it was difficult for Shenhua players to fully recover, both mentally and physically. Beijing Guoan's current round of the league is played a day earlier than Shenhua, and it is clear that they will definitely have a certain advantage in terms of physical fitness. Therefore, Shenhua must strive to score as early as possible and establish the victory as soon as possible. This season, Shenhua's goal rate after 75 minutes is very high, and all four goals that were deemed valid by the referee over the two legs against Harbour were scored after 75 minutes of the game. But in this game against Beijing Guoan, it may be difficult for Shenhua to take advantage after 75 minutes.

If Shenhua can beat Beijing Guoan to advance to the last four, the next round opponent will be the winner of Shanghai Port and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers. According to the schedule, the semi-finals are scheduled for September 24-26. On November 25, the 2024 Chinese Football Association Cup will usher in the final battle.

Next month, the AFC Champions League Elite League will begin, which means that Shenhua will welcome the league, FA Cup and AFC Champions League. In September, after the off-season, Shenhua first played away against the Zhejiang team on September 13, because Amadou and Gao Tianyi received a yellow card in this round of derby, so the Zhejiang team accumulated 4 yellow suspensions, and Shenhua had to face the situation of a lack of major generals. Then, on September 17, the first game of the first stage of the AFC Champions League elite league was played at home against Pohang Iron Man. As the highest level of club league in Asia, the competition is certainly much more difficult than the Chinese Super League. Subsequently, on September 21, they played Tianjin Jinmen Tigers at home, and on September 28, they played against Qingdao Manatee away. With the league points two points behind Harbour, every game is very important for Shenhua and there is no room for mistakes. And once the FA Cup in midweek defeats Guoan and enters the FA Cup top 4, plus the FA Cup semi-finals, from September 13th to 28th for about half a month, Shenhua will have 5 games, an average of 3 days of rhythm, the difficulty can be imagined.

Shenhua's internationals worked even harder, reporting to the national football team for the next league break to play in the last 18 of the World Preliminary Round of 18 against Japan on September 5 and at home to Saudi Arabia on September 10. In the "derby" last weekend, the head coach of the national football team, Ivankovic, visited the Shanghai Stadium to inspect the international players. Shenhua is a big international player, and I am afraid that at most 9 players will be transferred. After back-to-back matches, it may be difficult for them to maintain a good fighting force in the face of an average of three games per game, which is the biggest problem for Shenhua and Slutsky in the future.