On the stage of Yuexiu Mountain Stadium in Guangzhou, Guangzhou City Football Team ushered in the finale of this season's Chinese Super League on the 4th, and successfully locked up the seventh place in the league with a 2-1 victory over Hebei. This achievement is not only the club's best performance in the past four seasons, but also wrote a new chapter in the history of the club. 31-year-old veteran Song Wenjie scored two goals, including a wonderful world wave that made the whole stadium boiled. The two teams were fighting for the seventh and eighth places in the league, and despite the seemingly inconsequential positions, both teams went into the game with a relaxed mindset, showing an open and free style. Faced with injury problems, both teams made changes to their personnel, with Chen Zhizhao making his debut with an injury, replacing the injured Li Tixiang, and three U23 players also getting a chance to play. Outside of goalkeeper Han Pengfei, Wang Huapeng started and played the whole game, and 18-year-old Wen Yongjun also came on as a substitute. Hebei also gave their young players a chance, and 19-year-old Zhang Yu made a brilliant overhead kick late in the game to equalize the score at 1-1.
Guangzhou City head coach Van Garst said after the match that his team played a great game in a relaxed state. Song Wenjie's two goals showed his individual strength. In the 35th minute, he fired a long-distance shot directly from outside the penalty area, the ball made a perfect arc, hit the post and refracted into the net. In stoppage time, Song showed his calmness again, escaping from two defenders and scoring twice.
Although Song is not Guangzhou City's main striker this season, he was in superb form in this game, taking advantage of the fact that foreigner Thiago had gone home to look after his wife, who was in labor. It was also the second time after 11 years that Song scored twice in the Chinese Super League. Wen Yongjun, a rising star for Guangzhou City this season, previously scored his first CSL goal against Beijing Guoan. In this match, he scored a goal in the 57th minute after coming on as a substitute, but the goal was disallowed for offside after the VAR video assistant referee ruled that the goal was offside. Nevertheless, Wen Yongjun's goal running and sniffing sensitivity still improved. In his season summary, Van Garst said that despite the difficulties faced by the team, he was pleased with the unity and fighting spirit of the players. He mentioned that although his contract expired at the end of last year, he was very happy with his coaching experience at Guangzhou City and said he will stay in China to wait for his next job opportunity.
