Missing such a great opportunity, how can Shenhua talk about winning the championship?

Special Contributor / Gan Hui Opportunities favor those who are prepared. Throughout this season, Shanghai Shenhua has repeatedly missed chances to compete for the title. Whether leading the Chinese Super League table by 6 points or falling behind by 3, the pattern remains the same. Last night (the 26th), in the 28th round of the CSL, when both Shanghai Port and Chengdu Rongcheng failed to win and Shenhua only needed a victory at home to catch up with Port, they instead barely managed a draw against the newly promoted team, once again missing a golden opportunity.

In last night’s match against Dalian Yifang, Shenhua fell behind by two goals at home but managed to equalize with a penalty in stoppage time. Clearly, the problem on the road to the championship is not that their rivals are too strong, but that Shenhua’s own performance has been quite poor. They lost away games to relegation-threatened Shenzhen New Pengcheng and Wuhan Three Towns, and now drew at home against Dalian Yifang at a critical moment.

This round of matches, involving the fierce title contenders Shanghai Port, Chengdu Rongcheng, and Shanghai Shenhua, all took place on the 26th. Port played first, facing Shandong Taishan away—a truly tough challenge during the league’s final sprint. Strong opponents and injuries to key players caused Port to hit the brakes in their title chase, losing 1-3 to Shandong Taishan. Before Shenhua’s match started, Chengdu Rongcheng was trailing at halftime against Qingdao West Coast.

Given this situation, Shenhua only needed to seize the chance and defeat Dalian Yifang at home to level points with the leaders, greatly boosting their title hopes. However, this opportunity seemed to turn into invisible pressure rather than motivation.

Because Shenhua’s main players were fully committed in the midweek AFC Champions League Elite Tournament, they were heavily drained, and many players had not recovered. After the match began against Dalian Yifang, Shenhua showed no enthusiasm, with many passing errors, very slow offensive progress, a sluggish game pace, and failing to apply pressure on the opponent.

Dalian Yifang’s tactics were very clear: a heavily fortified defense at the back and quick counterattacks. This approach worked very well. In the 25th minute, Lü Zhuoyi scored a long-range goal to break the deadlock. In the 39th minute, Penya assisted Liu Zhuren for a one-on-one goal, turning the game around and giving Dalian Yifang a 2-0 lead away from home.

This situation was unexpected. In the first half of the league, Shenhua had easily beaten this opponent away. But in this game, despite having the home advantage, Shenhua’s overall form was sluggish, especially their foreign players, who failed to contribute as expected on the pitch.

When chances appeared, Shenhua found themselves trapped in difficulties. At this moment, it was the veteran who stepped up. Wu Xi scored a goal and created a penalty chance for Shenhua, becoming the key figure who enabled them to eventually draw 2-2 with Dalian Yifang.

When the team was two goals behind, Wu Xi pulled one back in the 43rd minute despite being surrounded by multiple defenders. However, due to the team’s very poor first-half performance, coach Slutsky did not make any adjustments to the lineup during halftime. It wasn’t until the 53rd minute that he made the first substitution, bringing Xu Haoyang on for the recently underperforming Chen Jinyi. Judging by the overall team performance and game flow, this substitution was neither timely nor strong enough. Therefore, Shenhua, urgently needing goals, saw little improvement in the second half.

In the 10th minute of stoppage time, Wu Xi was fouled by Bi Jinhao while contesting a header. After reviewing VAR, the referee awarded a penalty, which André Luis converted, allowing Shenhua to finally salvage a hard-fought 2-2 draw. Both goals were connected to Wu Xi. In this crucial match, Shenhua’s foreign players failed to perform as expected, while the veteran repeatedly kept the team’s hopes alive. After scoring in this match, Wu Xi became the first player in his career to score in three consecutive CSL games, marking his 8th goal of the season and setting a personal record for goals in a single CSL campaign.

At the post-match press conference, Slutsky focused more on the psychological aspect, saying, “Last year at home, we faced a similar situation. The opponents may not have been that strong, but we still didn’t win. I think it might be because the players felt heavy psychological pressure after learning other teams’ results, which led to poor performance. Many players did not show their usual level today. This was probably our worst performance this season. For a title-contending team, gaining experience in handling pressure at critical moments is a necessary lesson, and today we paid the price again.”

But looking at the season as a whole, there are definitely more areas Shenhua needs to improve. The lack of tactical variety and weaknesses in some key positions are important reasons why Shenhua lacks sustained strength.

After this round, Shenhua has 58 points, trailing leader Shanghai Port by 2 points and Chengdu Rongcheng by 1 point. With two rounds left in the league, they still theoretically have a chance to win the title. However, given the team’s poor form, their competitiveness for the championship remains quite limited.