Shanghai Zhongyuan Extends Winning Streak

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 08, 2002

Shanghai Zhongyuan Extends Winning Streak

Newly-promoted Shanghai Zhongyuan continues with a clear record as they beat Shanxi Guoli 1-0 Sunday in Shanghai, extending their unbeated streak to five games.

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Newly-promoted Shanghai Zhongyuan continues with a clear record as they beat Shanxi Guoli 1-0 Sunday in Shanghai, extending their unbeated streak to five games.

Zhongyuan, who play the Chinese Division A for the first time, is now ranked second with 11 points from three wins and two draws. Beijing Guoan, which put on a strong show to thrash Chongqing Lifan 4-0 on Saturday on home turf, stay atop of the ranking by goal difference with same points.

Tianjin Taida rewrote history on Sunday when they rallied to beat visiting Shanghai Shenhua 2-1 for the first time in the franchise history.

The first half ended scoreless before Shenhua's substitute Wang Ke broke the deadlock in the 76th minute. He met a smart pass from teammate Xie Hui and drove it past struggling Taida goalkeeper Jiang Jin, who is also the goalkeeper of Chinese national team.

But the host scored the equaliser from the spot only three minutes later. Wang Ke fouled in Shenhua's box and the refree immediately pointed to the spot. Ukraine's forward Christian Castellano buried it. With two minutes to go, Castellano scored again on a corner.

This is the first time for Taida to beat Shenhua in Chinese league's nine-year history. Shenhua's head coach Xu Genbao blamed the loss on his players' inexperience.

"My players are rather young and don't know how organise defence on crucial moment. We lost to two set-pieces, one penalty and one corner. I see no reason to concede a goal on the corner," he said.

Chinese international Li Xiaopeng dished out three excellent assists to help Shandong Luneng beat Bayi Zhenbang 3-0.

The midfielder Li, who ran along the right flank in the national team, set unmarked striker Su Maozhen directly confront with Zhenbang's goalkeeper with a long accurate through pass only one minute into play. The tall forward, who capped in China's qualifying way to the 2002 World Cup, solidly put the ball into the net to making it 1-0.

In the 23rd minute, Li's free kick found Ukraine's Sergiy Nagornyak open before the goal and the latter headed it in. The third goal came in the 58th minute when Su met another free kick from Li and scored his second goal of the match.

Defending titlist Dalian Shide wrestled down their consecutive third win with a tough 2-1 win over visiting Qingdao Yizhong.

Shide got off to good start, scoring the opener in the second minute. But Yizhong pulled it level in the 32nd minute. In the 58th minute, Shide earned a penalty kick and Bulgarian forward Zoran Jankovic made it 2-1 from the spot.

Shenzhen Kejian disposed off Sichuan Dahe 2-0 when they beat the offside traps twice in the 32nd minute and 45th minute.

In another Sunday's game, Liaoning Bird was held to a 1-1 draw by Yunnan Hongta.

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Tianjin Taida Rallies to Beat Shanghai Shenhua 2-0

Tianjin Taida Rallies to Beat Shanghai Shenhua 2-0

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