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shenhua fans have been waiting for nearly 16 years for a home victory in the afc champions league group stage. on april 7, 2009, in the afc champions league group stage, shenhua defeated south korea's suwon samsung 2-1; on september 17, 2024, in the opening match of this season's afc champions league elite group stage, shenhua reversed and defeated south korea's pohang steelers 4-1. there was a full 5,642 days between the two games.

mid-autumn festival, the moon is full, and the flowers are beautiful!

the slow start came from not adapting to the rhythm of the afc champions league

shenhua's last participation in the afc champions league dates back to 2020, when as the 2019 fa cup champion, shenhua won a place in the afc champions league, but many of the group matches of that year were not held in doha until the end of november. in the end, shenhua had 2 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, and got 7 points to rank third in the group. the 1-0 victory over tokyo fc on november 24 was shenhua's last afc champions league victory, which was 1,393 days ago.

the last time shenhua played in the afc champions league at home was on april 3, 2018, when they drew 2-2 with kashima antlers in the fifth round of the group stage. in that match, shenhua had 5 draws and 1 loss in 6 group matches and failed to qualify. compared with shandong taishan and shanghai port, two teams in the league that have more experience in the afc champions league in the past ten years and have achieved certain results, shenhua's gap is objective.

"when i played in the champions league for cska, the first game was always very difficult. the rhythm of the russian league and the champions league is also different. you need to adapt to the rhythm of the game. we also experienced this kind of discomfort today, especially in the first 60 minutes of the game."

slutsky's post-match statement was also recognized by malele. the striker who scored twice said, "we were a little passive in the first half, but i am glad that as the game progressed, we gradually adapted to the rhythm of the game, regained the initiative in the game, and finally won."

malele scored twice.

as shenhua's generals and coaches said, in this game, shenhua's starting lineup was almost all main players, while the opponent rotated more than half of the players, but shenhua was trying to find the rhythm in the first half, and the visiting team had two shots that hit the post and the crossbar. if it weren't for bad luck, pohang would have had a chance to take the lead in the first half. in the 53rd minute of the second half, pohang's center forward jorge shot from the near corner in the penalty area, and shenhua goalkeeper bao yaxiong was caught off guard and failed to make a save, and the ball went into the goal.

"but fortunately, everyone adjusted to the game quickly and showed the level we should have." starting from luis' header in the 64th minute, shenhua scored 4 goals in 20 minutes. in the 71st minute, malele headed in to overtake the score. in the 82nd minute, malele scored twice from a penalty kick. in the 84th minute, gao tianyi's long-range left-foot shot locked the final score at 4-1.

after the international match day, shenhua completed a 4-goal reversal in two consecutive games, winning two consecutive victories in the league and the afc champions league. slutsky was very satisfied with the players' performance. the russian said frankly, "i hope that in the next afc champions league game, we can fully demonstrate our technical and tactical level."

slutsky teaches ivan how to make substitutions

shenhua was able to reverse the score, and slutsky's on-the-spot adjustment was obviously an important factor. in this game, the russian still started in the diamond midfield, amadou returned from suspension and played as a single defensive midfielder, with wang haijian and wu xi in front of him, teixeira played as the no. 10 position, and the double strikers were still luiz and fernando.

the team was in a passive position in the first half. slutsky replaced wang haijian with malele at halftime, strengthening the attack while changing the formation.

"in the first half, we wanted to use more pressure, but it didn't work well against the opponent's mid- and low-position defense." slutsky explained the idea and specific method of changing the formation in the midfield at the press conference after the game. "during the halftime break, we adjusted the team's positioning in some defensive areas. i asked teixeira to go to the right and fernando to play as the attacking midfielder. in this way, we formed a 4-4-2 formation (fernando, wu xi, amadou, teixeira) when defending, and a diamond formation when attacking, with fernando playing as the no. 10. this made it difficult for the opponent to defend, especially when defending crosses. this change finally paid off."

naturalized player fernando was loaned to shenhua in the summer window, but in slutsky's inherent 4-3-1-2 system, the outside world believed that he could not be compatible with teixeira, malele and luiz at the same time. however, slutsky's adjustment in the second half of the game allowed these four to play at the same time. will a more offensive lineup appear frequently? the russian gave an affirmative answer, "absolutely."

fernando breaks through.

of course, this slightly risky system only lasted about 25 minutes, but after malele reversed the score to 2-1 in the 71st minute, slutsky immediately replaced fernando with gao tianyi. the team paid more attention to the overall balance, and gao tianyi also scored with a long shot, completing the russian's perfect on-the-spot adjustment in this campaign.

slutsky's ability to make substitutions and adjustments in this campaign also, to some extent, "beat" the chinese national team coach ivankovic.

in this asian champions league group match, more than a dozen media who came to the scene to interview had just watched the match between china and saudi arabia in dalian. taking advantage of slutsky's on-the-spot command during the match, their colleagues sighed that china's national team suffered a tragic reversal in the round of 18 against saudi arabia despite a good situation. "slutsky was really teaching ivan how to make substitutions."