Chinese Super League: Jonathan Soriano treble keeps Beijing Guoan in pole position

Soriano made light of the absence of Beijing’s leading scorer Cedric Bakambu through suspension to fire his side to their fourth win in five games to sit a point clear of Shandong Luneng with 15 games in the 30 round season completed.

“We’re just the halfway champion, which means nothing over the whole season,” said Schmidt.

“We have played lots of tough games in the first half of the season. All of the players have challenged their limitations constantly and after all these tough games, their confidence has increased a lot.

“We have 15 games left and we should focus on that.”

Soriano put his side in front after just seven minutes only for Gao Huaze to level for Hebei five minutes later, but the home side approached the half-time break with a two-goal lead as Jonathan Viera and Soriano found the back of the net.

Dong Xuesheng halved the deficit in first-half injury time before Soriano completed his hat-trick in the 58th minute.