Guangdong relegation derby exchanged blank rolls, and the difficult brothers continued to be worried

Reporter Wang Wei and Lu Mi report On the evening of the 20th, the 28th round of the 2024 Chinese Super League was held in Shenzhen, with Shenzhen Xinpeng City playing against Meizhou Hakka. Prior to this round, the two teams were third and second from bottom in the standings with 24 and 23 points respectively, so this game is worth 6 points, and whoever wins will greatly increase the chances of relegation.

But after more than 100 minutes of fierce battles, Meizhou Hakka drew 0-0 with Shenzhen Xinpeng City away from home, although both teams have increased by one point, but the ranking has not changed, and the points gap with Nantong Zhiyun at the end of the list has not been opened, and the future relegation situation of this team is still grim.

For both sides, this is a game that must not be lost, Shenzhen Xinpeng City Club has increased the winning award, coupled with the recent change of coach, the team's desire to fight is extremely strong, and the chest advertisement on the jersey has also been changed to "love this city", so as to encourage players to fight for the city. The team's biggest problem before the game was that foreign winger Andrade was unable to play due to injury, and Baihelam had just returned from the national team and was on the starting list with little time to get in touch with the new coach.

After a comprehensive run-in with the team during an intermission, Latanzio ushered in the all-round test of this life-and-death battle. In Latanzio's first game, he changed the team to 532, strengthening the defense while also putting a high point on the offensive end. The Meizhou Hakka sent Cheng Yuelei, Liao Junjian, Morris, Chen Zhechao, Ru Zinan, Ye Chugui, Shi Liang, Yang Ultrasound, Rodrigo, Kosovic, and Mali. Judging from the current situation of the team, this is the strongest lineup that the Meizhou Hakka team can send.

At the beginning of the game, both sides entered the rapid attack and defense without any temptation, and it can be seen that the players of Xinpeng City are still a little nervous and a little restrained in defense. Meizhou Hakka is mainly anti-guest, only 2 minutes into the game, Yang ultrasound heel pass, foreign aid Kosovic inserted in time to fall to the ground and shoot, and was finally saved by Shenzhen Xinpeng City central defender Dugalic in front of the goal. However, after a few rounds, Xinpeng City quickly got into the groove, blocking the opponent's counterattack and strengthening the midfield's protection of the back line.

It can be seen that in terms of attack, the new coach Latanzio has not made too many tactical adjustments, and is still dominated by penetration in the middle and breakthroughs on the wings. The fierce battle between the two sides in midfield and on the flanks, as well as frequent physical contact, resulted in not many shots actually being taken on goal, and even fewer threatening shots. In contrast, Shenzhen Xinpeng City, who took the initiative and did their homework on the defensive end, had more of an advantage in the first half of the first half, but the relative advantage did not translate into goals.

Meizhou Hakka also responded after adapting to the rhythm of Xinpeng City, first of all, it increased the speed of passing on the offensive end, and increased the transfer to dispatch the defense of Xinpeng City. In the 34th minute, the Meizhou Hakka team ushered in the second excellent scoring opportunity in the first half, first Ru Zinan's strong kick, the ball was cleared by the Shenzhen defender in front of Ye Chugui, the latter swept sideways, Shenzhen Xinpeng City team goalkeeper Zhao Shi saved the ball; Then Meizhou Hakka foreign aid Mali dribbled continuously on the left side, and after passing two defenders in the penalty area, he shot vigorously and hit the elbow of Shenzhen Xinpeng City defender Song Yue, but the referee did not give a penalty in the end.

The subsequent game was about the same, Shenzhen Xinpeng City's offensive and defensive conversion was not as good as the away team, not only the attack was repeatedly defused by the opponent because of the slowdown in speed, but even in the first half of the opponent was the crisis of being broken by the opponent to counterattack. Mali had a great header on 52 minutes of the second half, only to head just wide in the end and Xinpeng City escaped.

It was difficult to tear apart the opponent's defense for a long time, and the struggle in the midfield brought the two sides into a stalemate, and the emotions gradually rose. In the 69th minute, Latanzio took the lead in substitution, and defender Li Zhi, who was carrying a yellow card, was replaced, and An Yongjia replaced Baihelamu. In the following time, Xinpeng City also had good chances, and their cross from the right in stoppage time almost gave Meizhou Hakka captain Liao Junjian an own goal. But in the end, neither side was able to complete the goal, and a relegation battle related to "life and death" ended 0-0.

More than 100 minutes of fierce duels, 0-0 draws, no one made a mistake in the battle of life and death, but did not get 3 points on the direct opponent of relegation, which only made both teams very anxious. After the game, Meizhou Hakka team goalkeeper Cheng Yuelei said: "In fact, this result is not satisfactory for both sides, this game is very important for both sides, the draw allows both sides to escape the risk of relegation, and we have to go back to the home stadium to play a good game in the next game." Talking about the prospect of relegation, Cheng Yuelei said: "We can only do our best to stay in the Super League. ”

For Shenzhen Xinpeng City, in the last two games, they faced the new leader Shanghai Shenhua in one game and Nantong Zhiyun at the bottom of the list, and the situation was relatively more critical.

After the game, Xinpeng City coach Lattanzio also frankly faced the problems exposed by his Chinese Super League debut, "When I came here, one of the ideas I conveyed to the team was that we should be a team with a more solid defense. If you want to be a better team, you can't give the opponent too many chances to score. Defensively, we kept a clean sheet today, which is a positive aspect, and you can see that our goalkeeper Zhao Shi didn't make many saves today compared to the opposition. Latanzio was clearly happy with the revamp in defence, but on the offensive side he also acknowledged the lack of efficiency: "On the offensive end, when we create chances, we need to be more efficient and take them. ”

Lattanzio revealed that the squad has already set up for the away game against Shenhua: "Whether it is Shanghai Shenhua that we are about to face or the last game back at home, we will give it our all and be fully prepared. Especially for the next race, we have already made the preliminary event schedule. There will definitely be pressure, especially against strong opponents competing for the national championship. "In the home game against Shanghai Shenhua, Shenzhen Xinpeng City lost 0-1, this time away against Shanghai Tang, want to be relegated, Lattanzio needs to win, but Shanghai Shenhua has only lost one game so far this season, and it is very difficult to win." When we stepped onto the pitch, the pressure was inevitable, but it was 0-0 at the start of the game. We must prepare ourselves in our own way. Latanzio said he clearly wouldn't throw in the towel easily.

The next schedule of Shenzhen Xinpeng City is more difficult, but Meizhou Hakka is in the relegation zone at the moment, so Meizhou Hakka has no way back in the next two rounds. "For us, the next game is a must, to prepare in a special way, at the moment we have two main players who have certain injury problems, and we have to go through the medical team to determine whether the injury is serious." "Even though it's 0-0, we still have hope of relegation and we'll be back in training from tomorrow and ready for the next round." ”

Milan's reference to "preparing for the next round in a special way" has aroused interest. He explained: "At the moment we have a special team and we have to win this game, so when we are preparing, the special point is to make sure that we score in front and don't concede goals at the back. It takes a lot of technical and tactical details to work out, including our Rodrigo injury problem today, he is a very important member of our attacking line, and it is not yet known if he will be able to play in the next game. And in this preparation period we practiced a lot of flanking shots and trained very well, but today we were not very happy with our attacking performance and that is something we need to improve on. ”

"In the next game we have to do not concede goals and at the same time we have to score in attack, but if we put all our energy on defense, then we will have less attack, which is also a special situation," Milan repeated. We need to prepare and train in both areas. ”

In the next round of the game, Meizhou Hakka will face Wuhan Three Towns at home, Wuhan Three Towns has been relegated, and they lost to Zhejiang in the 28th round, even if it is an away game, they will definitely try to avoid consecutive defeats; In the last round of the league, Meizhou Hakka challenged Shandong Taishan away, although it was a three-line battle, but Shandong Taishan was strong in the recent period, and it was very difficult to win away from them. This is the most dangerous period after Meizhou Hakka is promoted to the Chinese Super League, and it is very difficult to play in the current state if they want to be relegated.