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CSL: ‘Brazilian Wu Lei’ and Oscar helps Shanghai SIPG to winning start
- Ricardo Lopes Pereira scores twice on debut to seal comeback win for 2018 Chinese Super League champions in Suzhou
- Shanghai side’s 3-1 victory, which features two Oscar assists, completes first round of 2020 season
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Former Chinese Super League champions Shanghai SIPG got their season off to winning ways, beating Tianjin Teda 3-1 in Suzhou on Monday.
The 2018 champions are the only team to have disrupted Guangzhou Evergrande’s run of titles in the last decade and they ensured they were top of the league’s group B based in Suzhou after the final game of round one.
This season has been adapted because of the coronavirus pandemic with the 16-team league split into two groups of eight, one in Suzhou and the other in Dalian, before splitting again for the second stage later in the year.
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Shanghai SIPG did not have it all their own way as the Tianjin side took an early lead through Rong Hao’s clever free-kick.
The veteran full back, who is on loan from Guangzhou Evergrande for a second season, slipped the ball under the defensive wall despite SIPG’s Brazilian midfielder Oscar apparently being alert to the danger.
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Oscar, who has made headlines for saying he would be willing to play for China if Fifa’s eligibility rules changed, made amends with two assists from corners before half-time.
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