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Chinese Super League
SportFootball
Jonathan White
The East Stand
Jonathan White

Marouane Fellaini, Oscar star in Chinese Super League’s opening round of matches

  • Guangzhou Evergrande and Shanghai SIPG resume battle at the top with big wins on Friday night
  • New boys Shenzhen impress in weekend where five games of the eight feature red cards

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Shanghai SIPG’s Oscar starred in their Shanghai derby win. Photo: AFP
Jonathan White
Formerly of the South China Morning Post, Jonathan White has written about sport from China for nearly 15 years, and covered the Beijing 2008 Olympics, the Fifa World Cup in Brazil in 2014 and the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
The first weekend of the Chinese Super League season brought with it our first chance to evaluate the off-season experiments.

New Shandong Luneng signing Marouane Fellaini proved decisive in the opening game of the season where his side hosted Beijing Renhe.

A little over 20,000 fans saw the former Manchester United man scuff home the winner just after half-time to secure the points for his new club and lead the table for an hour or two.

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Perhaps more would have made it if kick-off was not at 6pm on a weekday and the ground was closer to the city centre?

Crowds were not an issue in Guangzhou, where nearly 48,000 packed in to Tianhe Stadium to see the team that is favourite to win back their league title.

Guangzhou Evergrande’s own experiment in the off-season was to limit their foreigners and to turn into a training base for the national team, by signing players who have represented China.

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