Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Defender Zhang Linpeng claims Luiz Felipe Scolari’s arrival at Guangzhou Evergrande was “like our team was in the middle of the desert and Scolari brought us all the water we needed” ahead of Saturday’s AFC Champions League final first leg against Al Ahli of the United Arab Emirates in Dubai.
Brazilian 2002 FIFA World Cup-winning coach Scolari replaced Italian Fabio Cannavaro as Guangzhou coach in June and led the southern Chinese side to a fifth consecutive domestic crown on Saturday.
And with Guangzhou unbeaten under the 66-year-old, who also was in charge of Brazil at the 2014 FIFA World Cup, Scolari is on course to match Marcello Lippi’s feat of 2013 after the FIFA World Cup-winning Italian masterminded that year’s domestic and continental double.
“Scolari is a great coach. When he arrived it was like our team was in the middle of the desert and Scolari brought us all the water we needed,” said China international right-back Zhang (pictured, left), who joined Guangzhou from Shanghai SIPG ahead of the 2011 Chinese Super League season.
“There are some new players and new coaches, but there is one similarity that we are as eager to win this championship as we were two years ago.
“During the time Lippi was with the team he also taught me a lot and that you should always be eager for the victory and I maintain that spirit until now.”
Guangzhou were pushed all the way by Zhang’s former club Shanghai SIPG in the domestic title race this season and Scolari’s side had to wait until the final round of fixtures at the weekend to claim a fifth-consecutive title as a 2-0 win over Beijing Guoan maintained their two-point cushion at top of the table.
“It was really a tough year for us in the domestic league because more teams invested more money and we also faced a lot of injuries at the beginning of the year,” added 26-year-old Zhang, who is now a five-time domestic champion as well as 2013 AFC Champions League winner.
“It was a very important match for us against Beijing and we have now won five championships in a row, but the only pity is that I was suspended.”
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Zhang, though, is set to feature against Al Ahli on Saturday although Scolari will have to reshuffle his defence with Korea Republic international Kim Young-gwon suspended for the first leg.
Mei Fang came into the side to replace Zhang against Beijing and the defender is in contention to start against 2014 Arabian Gulf League champions Al Ahli, who have won their first five games of the new domestic season.
Al Ahli also boast in-form Brazilian striker Rodrigo Lima who has scored 14 goals in 12 appearances in all competitions for the knockout stage debutants, including four in his four AFC Champions League appearances since arriving from Portugal’s Benfica in the summer, as well as UAE international Ahmed Khalil who is the joint second highest scorer in the competition with six goals.
“We don’t know too much about Al Ahli as this team is quite a new team to the AFC Champions League,” said Zhang, who also helped China reach the quarter-finals of the AFC Asian Cup at the start of the year.
Photo: WSG