DALIAN, China, July 25 (Xinhua) -- The long-awaited start of a new Chinese Super League (CSL) season had finally arrived on Saturday.
In the 2020 season CSL opener match, Wei Shihao scored twice as Guangzhou Evergrande beat Shanghai Greenland Shenhua 2-0.
Before kicking off, all players and coaches paused in silence for one minute to mourn the lives lost due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Wei Shihao broke the deadlock for the CSL defending champions in the seventh minute after a counter-attack.
Guangzhou Evergrande built a solid defense system in the second half, seeing the rivals create few chances.
In the 65th minute, Wei enlarged the advantages to two in a close range after receiving the pass from Yang Liyu.
Guangzhou Evergrande's head coach Fabio Cannavaro put Wei on the bench in the 69th minute.
"I prefer him to have one goal or two goals in each game, instead of a hat-trick in one match, followed by several goalless games," Cannavaro said in the post-match media conference.
According to the contracts' details, Zeng Cheng and Feng Xiaoting, who joined in Shanghai Greenland from Guangzhou Evergrande before the season, couldn't participate in the game.
The debutant Yu Hanchao of Shanghai Shenhua, who was dismissed by the Evergrande because of being caught altering his license plate, wasted the final chance before the final whistle.
In Suzhou division's first game, Wuhan Zall edged Qingdao Huanghai 2-0.
Liu Yun of Wuhan Zall broke the ice in the 30th minute. In the second half, Qingdao didn't find the pace of the top-flight league as a newly-promoter. Eight minutes after the half break, Liu added up to another after Wuhan footballers played two consecutively one-twos.
Although Qingdao named Pablo Manchin as the new head coach, the 45-year-old former Espanyol coach hadn't been in Suzhou yet. The champions of the Chinese second division in the 2019 season failed to pull one back before the full time.
The CSL new season, originally scheduled to start on February 22, adopted a revamped format, under which the 16-team league was split into two groups. Suzhou, in east China's Jiangsu province, and Dalian, in the northeast Liaoning province, were selected as the two host cities of the first session's games. Enditem
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