Guangzhou Evergrande can bounce back from rare defeat

Beijing Guoan v Guangzhou Evergrande
Sky Sports 5, 12.35pm Saturday

Guangzhou Evergrande suffered only their second defeat of the Chinese Super League season last time out but the leaders should respond in fine fashion away to Beijing Guoan.

It was Guangzhou's first league loss since March and the champions will need to bounce back with Shanghai Dongya, managed by Andre Villas-Boas, breathing down their neck just one point behind.

However, Guangzhou have won five of their seven away matches and even last week's defeat to Tianjin Quanjian saw them score three times with Barcelona target Paulinho notching twice.

Fellow Brazilian Ricardo Goulart is also a major goal threat - he has scored 11 times in 15 league matches - and Phil Scolari's men have scored in every top-flight fixture this season.

That extra firepower could prove to be the difference between the visitors and the boys from Beijing, who are the lowest goalscorers in the top half with just 19 registered so far.

Manager Roger Schmidt was noted for having an attack-minded side at Bayer Leverkusen but getting that philosophy across immediately won't be easy in China.

The hosts have won one of their last six matches and scored just four times in their last five outings.

That is slightly surprising for a side with Burak Yilmaz and Jonathan Soriano in attack but something is amiss. Soriano has scored three times in seven games but two of those were penalties.

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