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Home » Sports » Soccer

Incredible Hulk fires 5-star SIPG

By Ma Yue | March 1, 2017, Wednesday | Print Edition

BRAZIL striker Hulk puts in an incredible performance — scoring the opener two minutes after kick-off and has a hand in three other goals — as Shanghai SIPG romped to a 5-1 victory over Western Sydney Wanderers in their AFC Champions League match in Shanghai last night.

The victory allowed Andre Villas-Boas’ team to go joint top of Group F on six points alongside Urawa Red Diamonds which beat FC Seoul 5-2 in an earlier match yesterday.

“The team played very well today,” Villas-Boas said at the post-match press conference. “We created a lot of scoring opportunities, which boosted our confidence to go forward. Our next two matches are against Urawa, which would be crucial to the group (ranking) — we hope to keep up the performance.”

After a 1-0 group-stage opening win at FC Seoul, where, too, Hulk scored, SIPG returned to the friendly confines of Shanghai Stadium where it was unbeaten in the previous seven AFC games. The visitors, however, found it hard to bounce back from last week’s 0-4 home drubbing by Urawa.

The hosts had a dream start when Hulk scored a comfortable header inside the box on a pass by Zhang Wei just 2 minutes and 24 seconds into the match.

The in-form Brazilian was surprisingly left unmarked on the top of the Wanderers’ box in the 16th, and found a waiting Oscar in front of the goal to score the second.

The hosts then took the foot off the pedal, allowing Wanderers midfielder Mitch Nichols to pull a goal back in the 19th.

Five minutes later, Wanderers goalie Jerrad Tyson blocked a freekick attempt by Hulk, but failed to collect the ball, allowing Shi Ke to score the rebound and regain SIPG’s 2-goal cushion. It was Hulk again who miscued a shot two minutes later but the ball fell in front of teammate Elkeson, and the latter was in perfect position to enlarge the advantage to 4-1.

The onslaught continued in the second half and Wu Lei made the score sheet with a close-range shot in the 74th. Elkeson almost added another in the closing minutes but was denied by Tyson’s brilliant save.

Wu Lei, player of the match, said afterwards that Oscar’s arrival has improved the team’s attacking tempo, and it is ready to take on Changchun Yatai in their Chinese Super League 2017 season opener on Saturday.

Villas-Boas, however, is yet to decide on his lineup for that match. Under the new regulations each team has to start with at least one U23 player and at most three foreigners.

“We still have three more days to figure it out,” the Portuguese coach said. “All players are playing extremely well, but we will have to drop one (foreigner) under the rule, which I think will be a pity for the fans.”

Wanderers’ head coach Tony Popovic said the result was a clear indication of SIPG’s quality. “They were dangerous and made the difference in the first half. We had 56 percent possession in the first half, which is not bad in an away game but SIPG’s class showed.”

It continued a poor start for Australian teams. The Brisbane Roar were crushed by South Korea’s Ulsan Hyundai 0-6 and have yet to score after two Group E games while Thailand’s Muang Thong United beat Kashima Antlers of Japan 2-1 to go top of the group.

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