Chinese Super League midterm reports: Guangzhou Evergrande not making the grade at the World Cup break

The 2018 Chinese Super League only started in March but after 11 games – just over a third of the fixture list – it’s time for the mid-season break with games resuming on July 18 after the World Cup in Russia.

It’s going to be a long two months for the players at Guangzhou Evergrande, where the chairman has promised change among the foreign contingent and training with the reserves for Fabio Cannavaro’s disappointing first team after stumbling out of the AFC Champions League to former club Tianjin Quanjian and letting the title race pass them by, while the Italian might well be relieved of his duties during the break.

The early pace setters remain on top but that’s not to say they want to. Recent weeks have seen them stutter after a record-setting start, and they could have gone into the break in fifth place had results in round 11 gone differently. Brazilian trio Hulk, Oscar and Elkeson have all been missing one way or another but Wu Lei has stepped up and is four goals shy of becoming the league’s top scorer ever. Vitor Pereira will be disappointed by the premature end to their AFC Champions League campaign but they are still in the CFA Cup and top the table. Is the double on or will they fall short again?