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Aron Wright - May 13, 2018
Guangzhou Evergrande vs Tianjin Quanjian
AFC Champions League
Date: Tuesday, 15th May 2018
Kick-off at 13:00 UK/ 14:00 CET
Venue: Tianhe Stadium (Guangzhou).
Everything left to play for when Guangzhou Evergrande welcome domestic rivals Tianjin Quanjian for the second leg of the 2018 AFC Champions League round of 16 tie.
The teams played out a goal-less stalemate in the first leg and in all honesty it was a drab match will limited scoring chances. It seemed like the managers were sitting at the opposite sides of a chess board waiting for the other to draw the first blood.
Guangzhou Evergrande will be the team feeling more confident about this tie on the back of a wonderful home record in the competition over the years. They walk into Tuesday’s contest on the back of a 15 match unbeaten run at home in the Champions League.
On top of that, Tianjin Quanjian are relatively new in the continental competition as well as the domestic circuit. However, they are a side making fast improvement in short time as last season was their first in the Chinese Super League. They did brilliantly to finish 3rd and earn their tickets to the Champions League for the first time as well.
It will be worth to note that the key figure responsible for Tianjin’s massive rise in stature, Fabio Cannavaro is now in the dugout of Evergrande.
Overall four meetings in all competitions between the clubs. Tianjin Quanjian won the first two home and away league meetings last season. Guangzhou Evergrande started pulling things back this season, first with a 1-0 away win in the Super League fixture and now a 0-0 draw last week.
We are expecting a much better attacking intent from both teams as compared to the first leg here. Either sides have players capable of doing the impossible, but we cannot rule out the fact that Guangzhou Evergrande are better equipped and experienced to handle this kind of situations. Thus, the best punt has to be the one that back the home side to win in a game that produce goals at either ends.
