Special correspondent Gan Hui reports Lore, lore again! Last night (February 22) in the opening match of the 2025 Chinese Super League season, Shenhua's home match against Changchun Yatai, last season's Chinese Super League runner-up Shenhua did not score a second goal until the 96th minute, thus defeating the opponent 2-1 with difficulty and winning the new season of the Chinese Super League.
In the pre-match press conference, head coach Slutsky said that "we will definitely prepare for the most difficult situation", but I am afraid he could not have imagined that the game would be so difficult. Until the fifth minute of stoppage time, the score was still tied 1-1.
Fortunately, Shenhua is still tenacious enough, and luck seems to be on Shenhua's side. In the 96th minute, Zhu Chenjie made a long pass, Mineiro received the ball on the right side of the penalty area and picked up the pass, and Andre followed up in front of the goal to score an empty goal. As in the Super Cup against Harbour, Shenhua still won the game by scoring a stunning goal. Shenhua scored 3 points as he wished, but throughout the game, Slutsky may need some changes when the tactical style of play has been familiar to the opponent.
In last night's game, Xie Hui, the head coach of Changchun Yatai, who advocates attack, made targeted arrangements for Slutsky's tactics, and he even did not hesitate to hide the two major foreign aids, Cyprian and Berridge, in the first 60 minutes. Therefore, when the opponent shrinks the defense and does not play fast transitions as much as possible, how to tear apart the opponent's defense is a problem that Slutsky needs to focus on considering and solving, and it may also determine the direction of Shenhua's new season to a certain extent.
Of course, in the final stage of the game, Shenhua still showed super combat effectiveness and tenacity as last season, and once again created a miracle. Andre, who scored the winner, said: "We knew before the game that it was going to be difficult, it was going to be difficult, the opponent would have this strategy, but the good thing was that the result was very good and hopefully our form continues. ”
Slutsky concluded: "We played really well in the first half, basically we controlled the game and created a lot of chances and scored a goal. Of course, because of a very simple mistake that caused the goal to be conceded, this will have a certain psychological impact on the players. In the second half, we continued to try to control the game, but it was not easy, and because we had played three more intense and tense games in a row, our physical condition was also limited to a certain extent, but everyone still played their mental outlook and mental quality to the end, and through their own efforts, we finally won the game at the end of the game. ”
Another goal for Shenhua was scored by new foreign player Mineiro. In the 28th minute, in the chaotic battle in front of Changchun Yatai's goal, Mineiro scored a supplementary goal, which was also the first goal of the new season in the Chinese Super League. The new foreign player contributed one goal and one assist in the opening game of the Chinese Super League.
After last night's game, Slutsky's substitutions were also one of the hot topics. When the team couldn't open the situation, Slutsky only made two changes, and Shenhua's substitute lineup also included international players Xu Haoyang, Yang Zexiang, Wang Haijian and former international player Xie Pengfei.
In this regard, Slutsky explained, "The first substitution should be very clear to everyone, Yang Haoyu as a young player, it is not easy to play a high-intensity game for a long time, so we thought about replacing it with Gao Tianyi at that time, and always maintain high pressure on the field for the opponent." In the second substitution, we used Wang Shilong, because Wang Shilong's offensive characteristics are more distinct than Yang Zexiang, so we replaced him to form more crosses. We don't have a better striker off the pitch at the moment, so we can't change strikers. Wu Xi also played very well today, so he replaced the two. ”
In the other two matches played last night, favourites Beijing Guoan and Chengdu Rongcheng both won the match. In the second round of the league, Shenhua and Beijing Guoan will have a direct dialogue at Shanghai Stadium. In the final stage of the game, Zhu Chenjie suffered a head injury during a header attack, and after the game, he went to the hospital accompanied by the team doctor to take a film examination, whether it will affect the next round of "Beijing-Shanghai War" needs to wait for the results of the film.