Foreign players deliver steady performance, Shenhua remains unbeaten for seven rounds and continues its "northern campaign".

Special contribution by Gan Hui Shenhua continues its strong performance, defeating Qingdao Hainiu 2-0 at home last night (April 22) while also embarking on a "northern campaign" from a starting point of -10 points and once being at the bottom of the rankings, climbing to fifth place on the points table, surpassing teams like Iron Men, West Coast, and New Pengcheng that were not penalized.

Over the past two seasons, Shenhua's forward line has often been criticized. Especially last season, the scoring efficiency of the forwards was relatively low. The top scorer André only scored 10 goals, ranking thirteenth on the league's scorer list. Moreover, during the critical stage of last season's championship push, the foreign forwards experienced a scoring drought, which somewhat affected the team's results.

During this winter transfer window, Shenhua made significant adjustments to its forward line, signing Latang valued at 3 million euros and Gay valued at 2.5 million euros. From the first seven rounds of the league, the new offensive combination has performed quite well. Apart from matches against Zhejiang Team and Beijing Guoan where they did not score, they scored in the other five games. In those two games without goals, Gay was absent due to injury.

In the match against Qingdao Hainiu, the opponent's goalkeeper Mou Pengfei performed exceptionally, at least blocking Latang's three consecutive attempts: a header and two close-range shots.

Mou Pengfei performed brilliantly, Latang who had scored in three consecutive rounds lacked scoring luck, while Gay reopened his scoring account with a calm push shot after successfully beating the offside trap. After the match, Gay revealed that before the referee confirmed the goal was valid, he kept praying continuously. Having not scored for several consecutive matches, his inner desire had reached its peak.

By the end of this round, Latang has scored 7 goals, Gay has 3 goals and 2 assists, together they contributed 10 goals, accounting for 62.5% of the team's total 16 goals.

Shenhua's other goal came from Teixeira, who forms the front three with Gay and Latang, serving as a very important part of Shenhua's offensive and defensive organization. In the first half when Shenhua wasted many opportunities, Teixeira's goal was very important and timely. This goal originated from Latang's shot being blocked, and Teixeira cleverly scored on the rebound.

This week, the Chinese Super League enters a double-match week. Next month, the league will have seven rounds of matches. The schedule is becoming increasingly dense, testing each team's physical reserves and bench depth.

During halftime of last night's match, Slutsky emphasized mental qualities, "I encouraged the players not to think too much about physical issues, but to fully focus on the game and unleash their potential."

Soon after leading by two goals in the second half, Slutsky began substitution adjustments, allowing the starting players to rest somewhat and the substitutes to activate their form through the match.

At the 65th minute, Slutsky replaced Latang and Gao Tianyi with Liu Chengyu and Yang Haoyu. In previous matches, Slutsky often replaced Gay. Regarding this change, he explained that Gay returned from injury in the last match, and he followed the medical team's advice to replace him early. "In this match, because Latang played many previous matches and had considerable fatigue, I replaced him to rest."

At the start of this season, Shenhua's key players continuously suffered injuries, so the team pays special attention to monitoring the physical health of important players. At the 77th minute of yesterday's match, Slutsky replaced Teixeira with Xie Pengfei, "For important players within the team, we constantly observe and manage their physical condition and health. Teixeira had injuries before, so we made a protective substitution."

At the 86th minute, Slutsky replaced veteran Wu Xi with Xu Haoyang. In past matches, he rarely replaced the captain, even under very dense schedules.

Yesterday's match was also Wu Xi's 200th league appearance for Shenhua. After the match, Shenhua Club immediately released a poster honoring the captain, "The初心不与年俱老，奋斗永似少年时.致敬队长！" Wu Xi said in an interview: "I am very happy that so many fans冒着雨为球队加油并支持我，希望今后为大家奉献更多精彩比赛."