Judging from the technical statistics after the game, the Longteng team occupied the absolute initiative, 61 percent of the ball control, eleven shots on goal, six shots on target, compared to Jeonbuk Hyundai's 39 percent of the ball control, three shots on goal, two shots on target, I don't know how much higher, at the same time, the number of free kicks in the front and back of the Longteng team is much more than the opponent, and the foul is much less than the opponent, and the yellow card is a 0:4 comparison.

It can be said that the luck of the Longteng team is really not very good, and with the referee's biased whistle, it is helpless to be forced to draw.

But in any case, the Longteng team still successfully advanced to the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League, which is also the final of the East Asian zone, and their opponent will be their biggest challenger in the league, Guangzhou Evergrande.

Yes, Zhang Sheng just sees Guangzhou Evergrande as a challenger to his team, and he has put himself at a higher height to look at Guangzhou Evergrande.

This game is not only the highlight of this round of matches, but also the season node battle of the 2015 Chinese Super League.

Now the Longteng team is leading Guangzhou Evergrande by 12 points, and at the same time won 0:1 away in the first leg, then according to the ranking rules of the Chinese Super League team, under the same points, it is necessary to compare the points of the two teams in each other's matches, then compare the goal difference of the two teams in each other's games, then the number of away goals in each other's games, then the goal difference of the two teams throughout the season, and finally the number of goals scored by the two teams throughout the season.

With five rounds left in the league, in addition to expecting the Longteng team to make mistakes in the subsequent games, Guangzhou Evergrande must win this game, and it must also have a goal difference of more than two goals.

Because now the total number of goals scored by the Longteng team is 67, the number of goals conceded is 20, and the number of goals scored by Guangzhou Evergrande is 52, and the number of goals conceded is 22.

Once the Longteng team wins this game, it goes without saying that the Longteng team has won the championship, even if the two teams are tied, even if the Longteng team loses all the games behind it, Guangzhou Evergrande won all the last four games, and the Longteng team finally won the championship.

Because Longteng and Guangzhou Evergrande have firmly grasped the initiative to advance in the first leg of the AFC Champions League, both sides have consciously let the main players make repairs in the second leg.

Like the Longteng team, Guangzhou Evergrande used up three substitutions just after 70 minutes of the second leg, apparently for the ultimate challenge of the league in three days' time - away against the Longtengs.

However, it is a pity that the team's main right-back Shu Jun went off the field due to injury, and the quota that was originally going to change the captain Zheng Zhi was used on Shu Jun, resulting in Shu Jun not being able to play in this game, and the physical fitness of the captain Zheng Zhi was far from enough.

In the pre-match interview, Guangzhou Evergrande's head coach Scolari looked confident: "I know that Longteng is a very strong team. But we're in very good shape right now. We were aiming for three points. Although we are a little behind in the points, I think we still have a chance to win the league. ”

Scolari can say such a thing when he is only twelve points behind the Longteng team in only five games, and since Scolari took over the team, whether it is the league or the AFC Champions League, Guangzhou Evergrande has not tasted defeat. In the Chinese Super League, they maintained an unbeaten record with eight wins and four draws, and in the AFC Champions League, they also successfully advanced to the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League with two wins and two draws.

At the same time as the team won, most of the injured players in the early stage of the league returned to the team in a healthy state, even if Shu Jun was injured this time, they also had Li Xuepeng on the bench, and an international-level player like Liu Jian could replace him, so the strength did not weaken much.

Considering that in the last round of the league, they easily beat AFC Champions League qualifiers Shanghai SIPG 3-0 away, it can be said that Guangzhou Evergrande is now back to the situation of controlling the Chinese Super League before, and even their rival Shandong Luneng's Lu media exclaimed: "Guangzhou Evergrande has regained its dominance in the 2013 season." ”

However, compared to Scolari's self-confidence, Zhang Sheng seems more confident, he said in an interview: "Since the start of the league, we have never lost, I think we will not lose again this season, the Chinese Super League has never won the championship with an unbeaten record, that is to start with us." ”

In fact, as early as the first few rounds, the Longteng team, which has been undefeated in the league, has given fans a great shock, because since the League A was changed to the Chinese Super League, no team has been able to win the championship with an undefeated record.

In the A-A period, in the 1996 season, Dalian Wanda won the league championship that year with an undefeated record of 12 wins and 10 draws in the season, and this is also the only time that a team has won the championship of the season with an undefeated record since the beginning of the professionalization of the Chinese Football League. Moreover, Dalian Wanda at that time recorded an unbeaten record of 55 rounds between 1995 and 1997, which was difficult for latecomers to achieve.

Since the Chinese Super League, this unbeaten number has not been able to reach the heights of Dalian Wanda.

The longest unbeaten run in the league was won by Guangzhou Evergrande, who just entered the Chinese Super League in the 2011 season, with 16 wins and 7 draws in the first 23 rounds of the league, but in the 24th round, Evergrande lost 1-2 to Yatai and suffered its first defeat of the season, and then Guangzhou Evergrande also won 23 games unbeaten in the 2013 season in the Chinese Super League, AFC Champions League and FA Cup.

Since the beginning of this season, the Longteng team has been undefeated in the Chinese Super League, the AFC Champions League and the FA Cup.

Among them, the league is 19 wins and 6 draws, the AFC Champions League is 7 wins and 3 draws, and the FA Cup is three consecutive wins, which means that the unbeaten number of games of the Longteng team has reached 38 games, and it is very likely to win the Super League championship with an undefeated record.

When Zhang Sheng's words were reported by the media, it caused an uproar among the fan base.

Not only did the fans of Guangzhou Evergrande scoff at Zhang Sheng's wild words, but even the old fans of Dalian Wanda were very dissatisfied with Zhang Sheng's words, and they mocked: "There is no tiger and monkey in the mountains to be the king, and there are five rounds of games, the higher the flag, the more embarrassed and embarrassed it will be." ”

In fact, Zhang Sheng's answer has his own ideas.

Judging by the situation of the team during this time, it is clear that the players are a little slack.

Since the team's points lead to second place by a large margin, the players have obviously lost their enthusiasm for the league, and although many players have not said it, it can be seen from their usual training and game performances that there is always a feeling of lack of energy.

Zhang Sheng has foreseen this situation, because in the past few years in Europe, Zhang Sheng has seen too many small league champions, such as Red Bull Salzburg in the Austrian First League, Dinamo Zagreb in the Croatian First League, and Olympiacos in the Greek Super League, basically every year the league championship and cup championship are won by these teams.

These teams all share the same characteristics - they include most of the country's main national team players, they have the best foreign players in their home leagues, and they have a steady source of funding behind them.

But does it help the team and the national team in your country? Not really.

These European minor league players are considered to be windy and rainy in their own leagues, and once they reach the Champions League or Europa League, their competitiveness becomes extremely weak.

At the same time, the level of the national team of these countries is correspondingly worse than that of the countries with the five major leagues, when they are lucky, they have a group of high-level players, and the team can get a good result, and when they are unlucky, they are in danger of entering the finals of the European Cup or the World Cup.

On the other hand, countries with five major leagues are strong contenders for the title when they have a lot of top players, and when they don't have a top player, they can guarantee that they will qualify for the finals of the European Championship or World Cup almost every time.

In other words, countries with high competitiveness in their own leagues can guarantee the lower limit of the national team, while the opposite can only depend on luck.

A large part of this is due to the low competitiveness of the domestic leagues.

The players in those squad teams can win as long as they play casually in the league, and of course they don't give their all in the game, and when they actually meet a more confrontational game in the Champions League or Europa League, the loss is completely predictable.

In fact, the Longteng team continues to develop like this, and it is the old path of these teams.

Now the Longteng team basically includes most of the best domestic players, with the top foreign aid in the league, and there is a parent company like Longteng Group behind the blood transfusion, plus Zhang Sheng has a system, and when the domestic good players in the old rival team like Guangzhou Evergrande slowly grow old, the Longteng team will definitely be the first in the domestic league.

Therefore, Zhang Sheng must use higher requirements to urge his players, only by letting them always have a goal, can they be motivated to move forward with all their efforts.

At the same time, Zhang Sheng's request can also eliminate those players who are not enterprising in the team and maintain the atmosphere in the team.

In this game, Zhang Sheng still adhered to his old tactics, and the only thing to remind the players to pay attention to was the new foreign aid introduced by Guangzhou Evergrande in the second half of the season - Paulinho.

When Paulinho joined Guangzhou Evergrande for €1,400 in the second transfer period, many people were skeptical about the deal, after all, the player was known as a parallel commodity at Tottenham and has been reduced to a fringe figure in the team. Now, nearly half a season has passed, and the original skepticers have long been conquered by Paulinho's superstar performance.

As a player handpicked by Scolari, Paulinho's joining is to solve the team's defensive problems, and whether it is the league or the AFC Champions League, the team's defense has improved significantly after Paulinho's arrival. The average number of goals conceded per game in the league dropped from 1 to 0.8, and the average number of goals conceded per game in the AFC Champions League dropped from 1.4 to 0.5. It can be said that Paulinho is the last and most important piece of Scolari's tactical puzzle.

In the match against Shanghai SIPG, another strong contender for the Chinese Super League title, this game was a collective outbreak of Evergrande Brazil, with Robinho, Goulart and Elkeson taking up three goals for the team. But in the strong dialogue, defense is the key to winning, Evergrande can win the game bloodlessly, Paulinho is a great contributor, in this game, Paulinho successfully froze the core of SIPG Conca, and missing Conca's threading needle, SIPG almost did not play a threatening attack. It can also be seen from the statistics that SIPG only had 8 shots on goal and only 3 shots in the penalty area, far less than SIPG's average of 9.6 shots in the box per game this season, which shows Paulinho's success in restricting Conca.

On the offensive end, Paulinho also reflects his role, as a defensive midfielder, Paulinho's offensive ability should not be underestimated, long-range shots and set-pieces are Paulinho's two major weapons.

In the first leg of the AFC Champions League quarterfinals, Paulinho scored his first goal since joining Evergrande, when the 0-1 backward Bai Sun God was attacking vigorously, making Guangzhou Evergrande's backfield suffer a strong impact, and Paulinho shocked the world wave with a kick The flame of the Bai Sun God's counterattack was extinguished, and the team finally won the game 3-1.

As a reborn Zhang Sheng, he also knows that in the AFC Champions League final in history, Paulinho contributed a total of 13 tackles in the two legs (6 away and 7 at home), and the other players did not make more tackles in the two legs than him, and the midfield guarded by him became an insurmountable gap for Al Ahly.

In the game against Barcelona, Paulinho was the only one in the Evergrande team who could play a few tricks with the Barcelona players. In that game, Paulinho's 32 passes, 81.3% pass completion rate, and 3 tackles were the highest in the team, and the gap between Paulinho and the homegrown players was even more obvious when facing a super-class team like Barcelona.

At the same time, the more key the game, Paulinho's goal is more and more critical, in the last four rounds of the league in history, Paulinho scored 2 league goals, bringing 6 points to the team, in the first match of the Club World Cup against Mexico America, when everyone thought the game was going to go to extra time, it was Paulinho who played the role of a hero, with a header to kill the opponent, bringing the team the opportunity to play against Barcelona.

They opened the scoring in the opening three minutes of the Club World Cup final against Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the 3rd and 4th place finals, but the team eventually lost the game due to exhaustion, and it was the only game in which Paulinho scored and the team lost.

In the 2016 season, Paulinho became the barometer of Guangzhou Evergrande, his performance was good, Guangzhou Evergrande performed well, his state was poor, and Guangzhou Evergrande lost nine times out of ten.

At the same time, in the Brazilian national team, Paulinho's performance shocked the outside fans, he played two games in the South American region of the World Preliminary Tournament, one was a hat trick, and the other was to send two assists, such a performance can be said to be the world's top as a defender.

Later, in the 2017 season, Barcelona wanted to bring him in not just words, but really wanted him to play in the team.