CSL Review: Guoan waste chance to close gap, Yiteng pick up important win

Beijing Guoan squandered an opportunity to make a dent in Guangzhou Evergrande’s Chinese Super League lead on Saturday.

Guangzhou had the weekend off as they concentrated on their AFC Champions League quarter-final encounters with Western Sydney Wanderers, opening the door for Guoan to reduce the deficit to four points with their game in hand.

However, Guoan were always playing catch-up at Shandong Luneng, with Vagner Love opening the scoring for the home side in the fourth minute.

Darko Matic levelled matters shortly before the half-hour mark, but Aloisio’s effort in first-half stoppage time restored Shandong’s lead.

Erton Fejzullahu netted his fifth goal in as many starts to restore parity after the interval, but Guoan were unable to find a winner and now sit six points short of Evergrande.

Guoan, who have taken four points from their last three fixtures, may now be looking over their shoulders to Guangzhou R and F and Shanghai SIPG, who have picked up nine in the same period.

Their latest triumph came at home to struggling Dalian Aerbin – Tobias Hysen and Wu Lei finding the back of the net in the first half as they closed the gap on second to five points.

R and F just edge SIPG into third by virtue of their better goal difference, and were 3-1 winners over Changchun Yatai on Sunday.

Harbin Yiteng’s hopes of top-flight survival received a huge boost as they picked up an impressive 3-1 victory over Hangzhou on Monday.

Han Deming scored either side of Dori strike to send Yiteng in with a 3-0 lead at the break, with Davy Angan’s second-half reply serving only as consolation.

Fellow relegation zone-dwellers Liaoning Whowin also recorded a rare victory, beating Tianjin Teda 2-1 to close the gap on Henan Jianye, who lost 3-1 at Guizhou Renhe.

In the weekend’s remaining fixture, Shanghai Shanxin won 3-0 at Jiangsu Sainty.