March 29, with the Chinese Football Association announced three professional league access list, the first stage of the new season of the Chinese Super League Wuhan team among the B group. Compared to last year's "one-win relegation" drawback under the conference system, this season's Super League will play 30 rounds of matches to determine the final ranking of the 30 rounds of the total results, so as to determine from the champion to participate in the Super League to the first round of the play-offs. However, the competition arrangement will first adopt the tournament grouping method, in which Wuhan's team is assigned to Group B in the first stage, and will first face Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei, Guangzhou City, Dalian People and the newly promoted team Changchun Yatai. Facing such strong opponents, what kind of results can Wuhan team harvest?
30 rounds of competition to eliminate "one win relegation"
In the case of defending champion Jiangsu team is not involved in the competition, the Cangzhou Lions, which was promoted to the Super League by replacement, will be organized into Group A (Guangzhou Region) according to the regulations. The new season of the Chinese Super League program will be unveiled on April 20 in Guangzhou, the opening game is very likely to stage last season's runner-up Guangzhou team against the Cangzhou Lions. At the same time, the new season of the Chinese Super League will be divided into three stages, the earliest full-season tournament on December 1, the end.
a, b two groups of the first stage of the tournament will be arranged in Guangzhou and Suzhou respectively, in accordance with the "serpentine placement" rules, Guangzhou, Shandong Taishan, Chongqing Liangjiang Athletic, Henan Songshan Longmen, Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Shenzhen, Qingdao and Cangzhou Lions were divided into Group A, while Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Harbor, Shanghai Shenhua, Hebei, Guangzhou City, Dalian People, Wuhan and Changchun Yatai were placed in Group B. Compared to last year's tournament system only 20 matches of the shortcomings of the system, this season's Chinese Super League tournament system will be more reasonable, the first stage in accordance with the serpentine placement divided into a, b two groups, grouping the first stage of the double round-robin tournament, a total of 14 rounds; the second stage, the top four in each group (a1 to a4, b1 to b4) and the other group of the last four (b5 to b8, a5 to a8) respectively, regrouping, and continue to maintain the two subgroups for cross double round robin, i.e., a1 only and b5 to b8 for double round robin, totaling 8 rounds; in the third stage, the first stage of the first two groups of the first four (a1 to a4, b1 to b4) in one group, and the last four (a5 to a8, b5 to b8) in one group, again for cross double round robin, totaling 8 rounds, which counts exactly 30 rounds of matches, and each team with the other 15 teams each Each team played two matches against each of the other 15 teams. This system is equivalent to ensuring that each team has played 30 games in a double round-robin of home and away matches, and the points ranking is more reasonable, eliminating the situation of "one win to relegate".
Because there are no direct relegation places in the Chinese Super League this season, the bottom two teams will play a two-round Chinese Super League promotion and relegation playoff against the 3rd and 4th place finishers in the current season's Chinese First Division, with the winning team qualifying for the 2022 season.
Schedule of the new season's stages of the Chinese Super League
Phase 1 (Rounds 1-5): April 20-May 17 (before the Top 40)
Phase 1 (Rounds 6-14): June 21-August 5 (after the Top 40)
Phase 2 (Rounds 15-22): August 21-September 29
Phase 3 (rounds 23-30): October 24-December 1
Performance in the first phase is particularly critical
Currently, Wuhan has a full midfield and backfield lineup, with the only regret being that the team's forward trio of Evra, Baptisteão and Raphael are temporarily unable to return to the country due to the epidemic and the national team's tournament days. Among them, Baptiste and Raphael are affected by the epidemic in Brazil, and other teams in the Chinese Super League, such as Beijing Guoan's Augusto and other situations are consistent. After participating in the Ivory Coast national team tournament, Evra will depart for his home country, but whether he can make it in time for the five rounds of the first phase of the group stage is still unknown after going through a quarantine period to prevent and control the epidemic. This means that Wuhan will have to play defense and rely on their local attacking players in the first phase of the tournament to compete for an ideal result.
