Special correspondent Gan Hui reports On the evening of March 1, after ending the thrilling "Beijing-Shanghai Battle" with Beijing Guoan 2-2, Shanghai Shenhua will usher in the two-legged contest with Japan's Kawasaki Frontale in the AFC Champions League Elite League quarterfinals. Although Shenhua has defeated their opponents in the first stage of the East Asian region, judging from the current situation of the team, it is very difficult to break through the Kawasaki Frontale and enter the top 8 of the AFC Champions League Elite League.

Ahead of the two-legged clash with Kawasaki Frontale, Shenhua welcomed old rivals Beijing Guoan in the new season of the Chinese Super League. In this game, the two teams played very intensely, the tempo was fast, and it was a big drain on both sides.

In stoppage time of the game, Beijing Guoan equalised. Shenhua, who has repeatedly killed opponents, was drawn by his opponent in key battles, and saw that the 3 points that were about to arrive became 1 point, which was a big blow to the team's morale. After the game, head coach Slutsky described his mood as "heartache", "The result of the game is heart-wrenching!" Overall, we created more chances and unfortunately conceded two goals that resulted in a draw. There weren't too many absolute chances for the opponent today, and we were used to scoring goals late in the game, and now it's really heart-wrenching that the opponent scores our goals. In the game, Shenhua also lost his soldiers, and Andre and Mineiro were replaced due to muscle discomfort. The departure of the two main strikers made Shenhua lose its attacking power. On the 2nd, the Shenhua Club arranged for Andre and Mineiro to go to the hospital for an examination, but as of press time, the results of the examination had not yet been released.

In the first round of the league, Zhu Chenjie suffered a facial fracture and his recovery period is expected to be 6 to 8 weeks, which means that he will miss the two-legged match against Kawasaki Frontale. If Andre and Mineiro both enter the injury list, Shenhua will have key players absent on both offensive and defensive ends, which will inevitably lead to a huge reduction in the overall strength of the team.

Kawasaki Frontale takes the two-legged match against Shenhua very seriously. On March 1, they lost 0-1 at home to Kyoto Immortals' J1 League, and Kawasaki Frontale rotated some of their main players to stay in the AFC Champions League Elite League.

For this season's AFC Champions League Elite League, Shenhua is aiming to reach the knockout rounds. After 8 rounds of competition in the first stage of the East Asian zone, Shenhua ranked seventh in the East Asian zone with a record of 3 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses with 10 points, entered the knockout round, and successfully completed the set goal.

Considering the current injury and fitness situation of the team, it will be quite difficult for Shenhua to go further in the Asian arena, so it is better to use the opportunity of the two-legged match to try new combinations of personnel and improve the condition of the substitutes in response to the problems exposed in the previous matches.

After more than a season, the teams have gradually become familiar with and understand Shenhua's style of play and have targeted restrictions. In the case that it is difficult to change the tactical style of play significantly, if Shenhua is almost unchanged in the arrangement and adjustment of personnel, it will undoubtedly be more conducive to the opponent's response. And Shenhua is not a team that no one can use, in recent games, Shenhua's bench sat on the bench current international players Xu Haoyang, Yang Zexiang, Wang Haijian, and former international player Xie Pengfei.

For any team to cope with a long season, it is certainly not enough to rely on only one lineup, and the team must have proper rotation to ensure that it is effective. In addition, as a team, it is necessary to form a good competitive atmosphere, so as to make the main players more urgent and the substitutes more motivated, so that in the next two legs of the next two legs with Kawasaki Frontale, Slutsky can be more open, carry out a certain rotation in personnel, and give more game time to the substitutes who have not played much before.

The form of the players is not practiced, it is played by the game. If the substitute players are in good condition, the advantage of Shenhua's bench thickness can be effectively brought into play.

In the two-legged match with Kawasaki Frontale, Shenhua won home and away. After the end of these two rounds of the game, Jiang Shenglong, Yang Zexiang, Xu Haoyang, Wang Haijian and Liu Chengyu, five international players who have been selected for the new national team training list, will fly directly to West Asia to report to the national team and prepare for the two world preliminaries between the national team and the Saudi Arabian team and the Australian team.