Early Chinese Super League strugglers Guangzhou City and Zhejiang Professional go head to head at the Yuexiushuan Stadium on Monday looking to kickstart their 2022 campaigns.
The hosts head into Monday's encounter on the back of four consecutive defeats at the beginning of the new season, whilst the visitors are not too much better off following a tough opening few weeks for the newly-promoted side.
Match preview
The 2022 season could not be going too much worse for Guangzhou City ahead of their fifth game of the season on Monday.
As mentioned above, the hosts have lost each of their opening four fixtures at the start of the new campaign, whilst scoring just one goal in the process.
As a result, Jean-Paul van Gastel's side will kick off the game in the bottom three, two places, and as many points, behind their opponents in safety.
The Dutchman's team were helpless in a one-sided fixture against Henan Songshan Longmen on Wednesday, with Guangzhou being dominated from start to finish in a 3-0 defeat on home soil.
There remains plenty of time to turn their disappointing start around, but it is already looking a tough ask for them to repeat the impressive ninth-placed finish in the regular season in 2021, which was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Meanwhile, as previously alluded to, Monday's visitors are not finding life too much better as things stand.
Following their promotion to the top flight in China, Zhejiang have begun the Super League campaign on a four-game winless run, having drawn two and lost two of their opening fixtures so far.
Former Barcelona youth team coach Jordi Vinyals is the man at the helm, but the Spaniard has struggled to help his side make the step up in quality to another level as things stand.
Although Zhejiang will be tipped to get their campaign up and running with their first win of the season against a fellow struggler on Monday, they will have history against them when they take to the field at the Yuexiushan Stadium.
Guangzhou and Zhejiang have not met for almost six years - since their meetings in the Chinese Super League back in 2016 - and after Monday's visitors lost both of the meetings that season, it is an unwanted record of seven consecutive defeats that they will be looking to end on their return to the top flight this time around.
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Team News
Although a five-man defence has failed to produce performances or results for Guangzhou across the last three games, Van Gastel is unlikely to alter his team's shape too much on Monday.
Hong Gui was forced off with a knock in the 3-0 defeat to Henan last weekend, so Chen Zhizhao and Tixiang Li could be fighting it out for the lone striker role in attack, with very few alternatives for Gastel to choose from.
As for the visitors, Vinyals has a couple of fresh injury concerns to contend with ahead of Monday's trip to Guangzhou.
Yue Xin and Haoran Zhong were both forced with injuries late on in the 1-1 draw with Dalian Pro on Thursday, with Yu Dong and Junsheng Yao among the options likely to deputise.
Former Croatia international Franko Andrijasevic and the experienced Zimbabwe forward Nyasha Mushekwi should lead the line once again.
Guangzhou City possible starting lineup:
Cheng; Wei, Yuncheng, Huang, Jinliang, Yi; Tan, Zhang, Li, Wang; Zhizhao
Zhejiang Professional possible starting lineup:
Zhao; Tianyu, Zheng'ao, Leung, Dong; Ewolo, Yao, Gu, Jin; Mushekwi, Andrijasevic
We say: Guangzhou City 0-1 Zhejiang Professional
There does not look to be too much between these two struggling sides ahead of Monday's encounter, meaning a dull game of football could well be played out.
Goals are not to be expected, with three being scored between the two sides across their opening four games each, so one goal might be enough to nick all three points, and Zhejiang look the most likely to inflict the killer blow.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Matthew Tranter
