Guo'an Say Bye to Gongti With a Win but Can't Secure CSL Trophy
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Following their final game of the season on Sunday afternoon, Beijing Guo'an has officially said farewell to its beloved Workers' Stadium in the heart of Sanlitun. The team now starts preparations to move to the Olympic Stadium for the next three years while their regular home undergoes extensive renovations.
With a 3-2 win against Shandong Luneng, the players managed to offer an action-packed afternoon to their 51,000 fans but failed to win the Chinese Super League (CSL), ten years after claiming their last championship title.
Guo'an's closer did not come easy, and despite a strong start to the game, they soon found themselves 0-2 down against the visiting team. However, Beijing didn't trail for long and by the end of the first half had clawed back two goals, the first by Zhang Yuning in the 43rd minute, which in turn inspired Brazilian Renato Augusto (pictured above) to score just before the whistle in the third minute of stoppage time
Yesterday's match was Guo'an's final game at Gongti before the venue undergoes renovations
After half-time, the match's rhythm slowed down considerably. The Imperial Kings were likely well aware that even a win would not secure them the title, since at the same time the Guangzhou Evergrande were busy crushing Shanghai Shenhua 3-0 at home, putting them in line to take their eighth title in nine years.
Guo'an's Wang Ziming was finally able to score a final goal in the 91st minute, securing their 23rd win of the season. Though the win comes as a bittersweet finish to the 2019 league, Guo'an players can be proud come second on the table, which allows them to play in the Asian Champions League next season and face off against the best teams of the continent.
It has also been a good season for Guo'an's French coach Bruno Génésio who succeeded the German Roger Schmidt last August. Once installed, the former Lyon trainer was able to reduce Guo'an's gap with Evergrande, but the question now is whether Beijing will be saying goodbye to both the Workers' Stadium as well as their coach; had they taken the CSL title, Génésio's six-month contract would have been up for an automatic extension.
For now, his future remains uncertain, though if the standing ovation that the team and its coach earned from their fans was anything to go by, it would not be impossible that Génésio – who was hated by many a Lyon fan – could stay for an additional year with Beijing Guo'an. And you never know, Génésio may have his eye on even bigger ranks, such as head coach of the National Team, a position that has been vacant since the untimely departure of Italian Marcello Lippi last month.
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