Chengdu Qianbao will look to keep their lengthy unbeaten Chinese Super League run going when they travel to face Shenzhen on Thursday.

The two sides enter the fixture after shock cup defeats to lower-league opposition at the weekend, though, both crashing out on penalties.

Match preview

For Chengdu, having now gone 26 league games unbeaten, defeat to third-tier Chongqing Tonglianglong came as a huge surprise.

Another shutout in the 90 minutes in that initial 0-0 draw does mean that Chengdu have not conceded in over six-and-a-half hours of action, though.

That represents an extraordinary shift in how their matches have panned out, given that their first five games in May produced 22 goals.

In the four games since, there have been just two, with Chengdu recording back-to-back 1-0 wins before two consecutive 0-0s.

Having not lost a league encounter since the October 9 last year means that, unsurprisingly, Chengdu find themselves battling near the top of the table.

A supreme finish to the campaign was not enough to see them qualify for continental football last season, but they are well in the hunt again, currently just one point off the top two and five off league leaders Shanghai Port.

That makes them big favourites for this clash, but they were unable to beat Shenzhen in either of their two encounters last season in their debut top-flight season.

For hosts Shenzhen, the vast majority of their points this season have come on home soil, so they will be glad to be back in familiar surroundings after a torrid few weeks.

They too lost to third-tier opposition in the cup at the weekend, resulting in a third straight defeat during a run of three consecutive away matches.

The defeat on penalties came after two chastening defeats to Zhejiang Professional and Changchun Yatai, conceding seven goals in the process.

Form at home has been much more respectable, picking up three wins and a draw from their seven games at the Shenzhen Universiade Sports Centre so far this season, as opposed just one point on the road.

Picking up wins shows that Shenzhen have at least stabilised after a horrid finish to last season which almost saw them relegated.

Their final eight matches saw them pick up zero points, score just once and concede an eye-watering 26 goals.

Team News

Shenzhen may continue to be without their two big-name foreign stars, after Frank Acheampong joined Romain Alessandrini on the sidelines in their last league outing.

One positive though has been the form of 16-year-old Shahzat Ghojaehmet, after he netted in the cup defeat at the weekend, continuing to justify his selection by manager Jun Xiang, two months after he became the Chinese Super League's youngest ever goalscorer.

Chengdu will welcome back Zhuoyi Feng after he was sent off in their 1-0 win at league leaders Shanghai Port at the start of the month.

However, Feng may only start on the bench behind English-born Tim Chow and Chao Gan in central midfield.

Goals have slightly dried up for Chengdu's South American front three of Manuel Palacios, Elkeson and Felipe Silva, but faith should be kept with the trio given their fine recent league form.

Shenzhen possible starting lineup:
Wei Minzhe; Xu Haofeng, Zhou Xin, Zhang Yuan, Yuan Mincheng, Liao Lei; Shahzat Ghojaehmet, Huang Ruifeng, Li Ning, Donkin; Du Yuezheng

Chengdu Qianbao possible starting lineup:
Zhang Yan; Tang Maio, Liu Tao, Windbichler, Hu Ruibao, Tang Xin; Chow, Gan Chao; Palacios, Felipe Silva, Elkeson

We say: Shenzhen 0-1 Chengdu Qianbao

Chengdu have been an unstoppable force on the league front, having not lost since October, and are predictably big favourites for this clash.

With their opponents on a 26-game unbeaten run, Shenzhen are unlikely to be the side to end that, despite their respectable recent home form.


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