Shenzhen will be looking to return to winning ways when they welcome Cangzhou Mighty Lions to the Meixian Tsang Hin-chi Stadium for their Chinese Super League clash on Friday.
The visitors, meanwhile, will be hoping that they can maintain their unbeaten start to the new campaign after claiming five points from their opening three matches.
Match preview
After winning their opening two league games against Rongcheng and Tianjin Jinmen Tiger, Shenzhen suffered their first defeat of the season against Meizhou Hakka, losing 2-1 at home on Monday.
A 49th-minute strike from Romain Alessandrini cancelled out Yang Yilin's first-half opener, but the visitors snatched all three points at the death when Nebojsa Kosovic found the net in the 91st minute.
Jang-Soo Lee's side could have been sitting at the top of the table had they claimed maximum points, but at the time of writing they now sit in fifth place at this early stage.
Shenzhen will be confident of returning to winning ways on Friday, as they face a Cangzhou outfit whom they have beaten in each of their last three home meetings.
Cangzhou, meanwhile, head to the South East of China unbeaten from their opening three Super League games, claiming one victory and two draws.
An opening-day 2-1 win away against Beijing Guoan was followed by back-to-back home draws against Meizhou Hakka and Rongcheng, with a goalless stalemate played out against the latter on Sunday.
The Mighty Lions failed to register a single shot on target last time out so head coach Svetozar Sapuric will be hoping to see improvements from his side in the final third on Friday.
Cangzhou have had plenty of success in finding the net against their next opponents Shenzhen as they have scored in 10 of their last 11 meetings against them, winning six and drawing two of these games in the process.
- W
- W
- L
- W
- D
- D
Team News
Shenzhen boss Jang-Soo Lee is unlikely to make too many changes, if any, to his starting lineup and he is expected to stick with a 5-4-1 formation.
Former Marseille and LA Galaxy winger Romain Alessandrini is set to start again on the right flank, supporting Zhang Yuan and Frank Acheampong in attack.
Cangzhou are set to line up with a 3-4-3 formation, which will likely see Yang Yun, Yang Liu and Stoppila Sunzu continue in the back three.
Sapuric could make a couple of alterations in attack, with forwards Bughrahan Iskandar and Xinyu Liu potentially coming in for Jing Luo and Fuyu Ma respectively, while Stefan Mihajlovic is set to retain his place as the central striker.
Shenzhen possible starting lineup:
L. Zhang; Huang, Pei, Lim, Y. Zhang, Jiang; Alessandrini, Li, Dai, Y. Zhang; Acheampong
Cangzhou Mighty Lions possible starting lineup:
Shao; Y. Yang, Sunzu, L. Yang; Piao, Guo, Zheng, X. Yang; Iskandar, Milhajlovic, Liu
We say: Shenzhen 2-1 Cangzhou Mighty Lions
Neither side were able to claim maximum points last time out, but they will both fancy their chances of returning to winning ways on Friday.
However, we feel that the hosts will do just enough to claim a slender victory against the visitors, who have won only three of their last 18 away matches across all competitions, dating back to September 2020.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Oliver Thomas
