Special correspondent Jiang Hai reports On October 29th, the penultimate round of the Super League in 2023 started at the same time. Nantong Zhiyun, who ranked second in the standings, challenged Meizhou Hakka away. In the end, the team scored 3 points with a score of 4-0. With the last round left in the league, the points rose to the penultimate third, beating Dalian people, and the final round of the game would be successful in relegation.
After losing to Shanghai Shenhua 0-1 at home in the last round of league tournament, the relegation situation of Nantong Zhiyun was once in jeopardy. In the last two rounds, they will play against Meizhou Hakka and Tianjin Jinmen Tiger away from home. Even if they all win, they also need to look at the face of their relegation opponent Dalian. Moreover, in terms of mutual record with Dalian people, Nantong Zhiyun is the main loser and does not have an advantage. Therefore, as long as Dalian people all win in the last two games, Nantong Zhiyun will get whatever results in the last two rounds.
Therefore, the game against Meizhou Hakka is a "can’t afford to lose" final for Nantong Zhiyun, and the team has suffered five consecutive defeats before, and it is urgent to get points to improve the morale of the team. Fortunately, Nantong Zhiyun started very well, and Jiang Zilei broke the deadlock in the 12th minute of the game. In the following game, Nantong Zhiyun played smoothly: in the 64th minute, Castillo made meritorious deeds, 2-0, expanding the lead; In the 89th minute, Morelato scored a goal, 3-0; In the second minute of stoppage time, Zheng Haogan scored a single goal after breaking the ball and sealed the victory 4-0.
While winning this game, Nantong Zhiyun also gave Meizhou Hakka the first defeat in the last five rounds. At the same time, Nantong Zhiyun also took the fate of relegation into his own hands. Generally speaking, the performance of Nantong Zhiyun team in the Super League this season is not ideal. They need to reflect on their own problems and find a solution to them.
Before the current round against Meizhou Hakka, Nantong Zhiyun scored 19 points with Dalian People’s Team, but due to the disadvantage of winning and losing, Nantong Zhiyun was in the relegation zone. At the same time of this game against Meizhou Hakka, Dalian people challenged Qingdao Manatee away. Compared with Nantong Zhiyun’s away victory, Dalian people scored two goals in a row when they were 0-2 behind, but they failed to beat their opponents in the away game and only got 1 point. However, Dalian people’s fighting capacity in this game was admirable. However, they lost their relegation advantage to Nantong Zhiyun without getting 3 points from Manatee. After the end of this round of competition, the championship suspense of the Super League has been revealed, leaving only one suspense of relegation. In addition to the relegated Shenzhen team, another relegation team will be created between Nantong Zhiyun and Dalian people. The away win of this game also allows Nantong Zhiyun to temporarily occupy the relegation advantage.
In the final round, Nantong Zhiyun played against Tianjin Jinmen Tiger at home, while Dalian people played against Shanghai Harbour, which has won the championship at home. Holding a 2-point lead, for Nantong Zhiyun, the last game must be won. If you can get 3 points, you don’t have to look at other people’s faces, and you can successfully avoid relegation at home. However, if you draw or lose, you need to look at the result of the game between Dalian people and Shanghai Harbour. At present, it can only be said that Nantong Zhiyun has left one foot in the Super League next year, but the team still cannot relax its vigilance until the end of the league.
After the game, David, coach of Nantong Zhiyun team, said: "As we expected, today is a difficult game. The opponents will not let you win the game easily. They played with the strongest lineup. We also carried out the counter-attack tactics arranged before the game well, and it is also very important that we didn’t concede a goal today. The opponent is a very strong team, so these three points are also very valuable to us. Our players have been fighting like warriors. In the last game, we need to fulfill our promises to our fans, win the game, and achieve the goal of relegation. For fans, it is too little to say thank you, and they are supporting us both at home and away. "
As far as Dalian people are concerned, the team has been pushed to the edge of the cliff. Even if the team beats Shanghai Harbour at home in the last round, it may not be able to avoid relegation. While Nantong Zhiyun has the initiative, he still has to go all out in the face of Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, who has nothing to ask for. As the "only seedling" of Jiangsu football in the Super League, Nantong Zhiyun’s game this season has gone through a rough time. Now it can regain its relegation advantage. The team should go all out to draw a satisfactory end to this season with a home victory, and at the same time let Jiangsu football remain in the top leagues in China.
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