With the first away win in the AFC Champions League in team history, the Zhejiang team is unfortunately out! Jodi's future is still undecided

Special correspondent Xu Yi reports It was a history-making night for Zhejiang football. On the evening of December 5, Zhejiang team defeated Bandung, Indonesia 4-3 away in the final round of the group stage of the AFC Champions League and won the first away victory in Asian competition in team history. But along with the new team history, there is also a regret, because in the other group stage, Singapore Lion City Mariners defeated the Thai and Hong Kong team that had advanced 5-2, so that the Zhejiang team finally ranked third in the group and failed to qualify from the group.

Before the start of this round of group stage, the Thai Hong Kong team had already qualified for Group F of the second division of the AFC Champions League in advance. At that time, the Thai and Hong Kong teams were first in the group with 10 points, the Lion City Mariners were second in the group with 7 points, the Zhejiang team was third in the group with 6 points, and Bandung, Indonesia was at the bottom of the group with 5 points. If Zhejiang want to qualify from the group, they must first win against Bandung, Indonesia, and then count on the Thai and Hong Kong teams, which have already qualified early, to not lose to Singapore's Lion City Mariners in the final round of the group stage.

Although in such a situation, the possibility of the two teams in the other game "joining hands to qualify" is very high, the Zhejiang team is still unwilling to give up any chance to advance. Zhejiang's head coach Jody has set his sights on winning and qualifying: "This will be our last game of the season, and we still have a chance to advance to the next stage, hoping to have a good finish and make the cut." It's going to be a tough game against Bandung, but we're prepared and fighting for the fans and for qualification. Football is a competitive sport, some objective factors such as suspensions, injuries and so on will affect the game, and the season is coming to an end, of course the team will have a lot of problems, we will believe in our players and stick to our style of play. ”

For Zhejiang, the other competitor is very strong, and their own game will not only have to fight against Bandung, Indonesia, which also has the hope of qualifying, but also have to fight against the rainy weather.

After arriving in Bandung, the Zhejiang team received a notice before setting off to step on the field, and in consideration of the weather and venue conditions, the pre-game step was temporarily canceled. The Zhejiang team immediately adjusted the arrangement, although they could not train on the court, they still had to go to the track to run and get familiar with the court as much as possible.

After arriving at the stadium, the Zhejiang team found that although the ground next to the stadium was very muddy and the track was seriously waterlogged, the drainage function of the stadium was very strong, and there was no water accumulation on the field. The Zhejiang team hurriedly applied to the game supervisor for on-field training, and finally got permission, so that the Zhejiang team could finally experience the West Kalehalub Stadium in advance. When the Zhejiang team first started training, the rain in Bandung stopped, but after training for a while, the heavy rain started to fall again. On the night of the game, the Zhejiang team finished the game in heavy rain, and some coordination and passing were difficult to make smoothly.

Despite this, Zhejiang still took a 3-1 lead in the first half. In the 15th minute, Sun Zhengao's header assisted Frank to volley the goal; In the 22nd minute, Gu Bin made a long pass, the Bandung defender made a mistake in clearing, Evra calmly passed the opponent's goalkeeper and pushed the empty goal to score after the goal, and Evra staged a passionate somersault after the goal. Although Putra pulled a goal back for the home side, Frank made it 3-1 in the 40th minute.

Zhejiang started very smoothly, but the other direct qualifying rivals Lion City Mariners were smoother, they opened the scoring for the team in just one minute, Song Yirong scored another goal in the 36th minute, and the Lion City Mariners took a two-goal lead in the first half.

However, the game of the Lion City Mariners changed dramatically at the start of the second half, and the Thai Port team levelled the score to 2-2 in two minutes between the 50th and 52nd minutes. If the game ends with such a score, Zhejiang will overtake the Lion City Mariners in points to advance to the knockout round. However, the Lion City Mariners then scored three goals in a row, and Song Yirong scored a hat-trick in the game to finally win the game 5-2 and overtake the Thai Port team to win the group.

On Zhejiang's side, although Patrice Evra scored twice in the 58th minute, and although Zhejiang won the game 4-3, they still failed to qualify from the group. This game is like a microcosm of Zhejiang's season: it is a team with a lot of passion, but it also concedes too many goals because of the "wide opening and closing" of the game. In this game, the Zhejiang team's starters sent a total of Cheng Jin, Sun Zhengao, Wang Jin, Wang Dongsheng and Wu Wei, a total of five players trained by their own youth training, Zhejiang FC has always insisted on attaching importance to youth training over the years, and has "blossomed and borne fruit" in the Asian arena.

Zhejiang's start to the second tier group stage of the AFC Champions League was not ideal, losing three of the first four rounds, and being beaten by Thailand and Hong Kong was the most critical reason for the group exit. This is the second consecutive season that Zhejiang have reached the AFC Champions League, ending the group stage with two consecutive wins, which shows that they are getting better and better, and have accumulated experience through Asian competitions. Zhejiang team has fought on multiple fronts this year, with a total of 15 wins, 5 draws and 18 losses, and how to achieve a more balanced offensive and defensive situation is an important goal for the Zhejiang team in the future.

As the last team to complete the final match of the Chinese Super League, the Zhejiang team finally ushered in the holiday from today. A month later, the Zhejiang team will regroup and start preparing for the new season - the new season will be the first full season after the completion of the share reform of Zhejiang FC, and the performance of the Zhejiang team is worth looking forward to. As for the coach, Jodi's contract with Zhejiang FC will expire at the end of this year, and there is no final confirmation of whether the two sides will renew the contract.