KUALA LUMPUR (Malaysia): Beijing FC captain Yu Dabao believes the club is well equipped to make amends once football returns in 2020 after they failed to win their maiden Chinese Super League.
The team from the Chinese capital finished as runners-up behind Guangzhou Evergrande to qualify for the AFC Champions League for the second season in a row – and the ninth time since 2008 – and they will be aiming to advance to the knockout rounds for the first time since 2015.
“The team played very well in the first half of 2019,” Yu told the-AFC.com. “The real difficulty was in the second half of the season.
“At the beginning of the second half, the team suffered three defeats in a row (twice in the league and once in the Chinese FA Cup) and one of the big reasons was the injury of Jonathan Viera, who is a very important player for us. His absence had a fatal influence on our tactics.”
Beijing made a remarkable start to the campaign, winning the first 10 games of the 2019 CSL season and also impressing in the AFC Champions League, only to fall away as the year progressed.
They missed out on a place in the Round of 16 as a result of a 3-0 loss at the hands of Urawa Red Diamonds in the final round of group games while in the league they experienced a summer slump.
Viera’s injury, when the influential Spanish midfielder (pictured below) suffered a broken rib in a 2-1 win over Beijing Renhe that kept him out for the rest of the season, hit the team hard.
That subsequent loss of form saw German coach Roger Schmidt replaced by Frenchman Bruno Genesio and, while Beijing bounced back, it was too late to deny Guangzhou an eighth title in nine seasons as Evergrande claimed top spot by two points. (Source: AFC)
