In the four battles, the top 5 of the Super League struggled to find a victory, and the harbor lost its dominance

Reporter Cheng Shan reported At 8 p.m. on May 17, Shanghai Port met old rival Shandong Taishan at home, although the pre-match Harbour hoped to shorten the gap with the championship team through this game, but ultimately failed to do so. With a score of 1 to 1, they once again opened up the gap with the current top of the Chinese Super League.

So far, in the 12 rounds of the league (one less round of the harbor), Shanghai harbor has no win against the top 5 teams in the Chinese Super League, Ping Shenhua, lost to Rongcheng, lost to Guoan, Ping Taishan, the record can be described as bad. What's even more terrifying is that these four games are played at the home stadium of Harbour, and judging from the results, the Harbour team has lost its previous dominance in the league.

In fact, before this game, in the face of Taishan, the harbor has an obvious psychological advantage, after all, in the past three years, they have not lost the record of encountering Taishan - from the 2022 season Taishan lost 0-2 at home to the harbor, until this meeting in the 2025 season, Taishan is in an absolute disadvantage in the history of the two sides, last season's two legs of the Chinese Super League and the FA Cup final were lost, especially in the 2025 season, the Taishan team had a bad start, There was even a situation where Qingdao Manatee, who was ranked last at the time, failed to score three points. Therefore, before this game, Harbour was the side that was more highly regarded by the outside world.

After a week of fixtures, Harbour are still at home, and this time they finally have a full preparation period, during which head coach Muscat has time to prepare not only for the tactics of the opposition, but also in terms of fitness, tactics and mentality.

Although the team has changed a lot this season, the current main squad is unstable, and the first few rounds have been affected by injuries, and the results are not ideal. But according to Muscat's plan, this clash with Tarzan is bound for the team. After all, in addition to the overall advantage of the team on the surface, in any previous occasion, facing the opponent's coach Choi Kang-hee, he has not been defeated.

Yan Junling, who is recovering from the injury and is quite good, also practiced with the team this week, but because there was still a certain amount of pain in the injured part before the game, according to the discussion between the team doctor and the coaching staff, the team did not want to take the risk and decided to let Yan Junling rest for a little longer, and the second goalkeeper Chen Wei still played in this game.

The starting lineup Muscat sent four foreign aids: Vital, Yusa, Gabriel, and Leonardo, and Wu Lei and Gustavo sat on the bench.

Although the two old rivals have changed a lot this season, the familiarity has not diminished at all, and the two teams entered the state at the beginning without too much trial time. Cui Kangxi, who sent three midfielders, naturally did not want to lose the game easily, and in the 4th minute, Taishan team Khazar passed diagonally to the penalty area at a 45-degree angle, and Cressan's header was saved by Chen Wei. In the 14th minute, the harbor crossed to the penalty area, and Liu Ruofan grabbed the header and was controlled by Wang Dalei. In the 27th minute, harbor goalkeeper Chen Wei threw the ball quickly, Liu Ruofan sent a precise straight stopper, and Leonardo broke in single-handedly, but this best opportunity to score in the first half was finally missed. In the 31st minute, the Harbour player rose to the top, and Zeka's volley from the right side of the penalty area bounced off the crossbar. In the first half of the game, both sides had a chance to score, but compared with the hot confrontation between the two teams before, this half, there were really not many wonderful scenes, and the harbor fighting at home also looked a little passive, and the performance of foreign aid was really unsatisfactory. The first half was a 0-0 draw.

Entering the second half of the game, the harbor made personnel adjustments, and the two youngsters Kuai Jiwen and Li Xinxiang took the lead, hoping to pose a certain threat to the opponent's goal, but in the 57th minute of the game, Taishan found a breakthrough first. Cressan exquisite straight stopper, Chen Wei made a mistake in clearing the siege, and then Kazaishvili and Xie Wenneng were blocked in succession, and finally Kazaishvili scored with the ball, Shanghai Port 0-1 Shandong Taishan.

In the case that the overall state of the harbor players is not excited, the young player Kuai Jiwen, who came on as a substitute in the second half, still performed eye-catchingly, after making a beautiful breakthrough in the face of multiple defenders and causing the opponent to grab the yellow, in the 79th minute, Kuai Jiwen accelerated to get rid of being tackled by Madruga, and let the latter receive a yellow card. In the 84th minute, Kuai Jiwen staged a good show of breaking into the penalty area and passing people continuously, and was finally put down by Liu Yang and created a penalty. Although this penalty was finally scored by Wu Lei, who came on as a substitute in the 66th minute, the credit of the savior in danger should really be counted on Kuai Jiwen.

The 1-1 draw, while guaranteeing Harbour's recent unbeaten record, is definitely not the situation that manager Muscat wants. After the game, he immediately took the blame for failing to win the three points at home, "The level we showed in the first half was not good enough, and I need to take responsibility as the manager. At the same time, he said that there was a good side to the team, "We made two changes at half-time and they had a positive effect on the second half of the game, we didn't give up, we scored the equaliser in the final stages of the game and we kept trying to get back after the equaliser, which is very gratifying. ”

Talking about Gustavo, Jiang Guangtai and Wu Lei, Muscat all said that they have not yet reached 100% form. "Wu Lei's situation is that at the moment we are helping him improve, including the amount of training is also being monitored scientifically, and we will do everything we can to get him back to the best, but at the moment he is showing the best condition that can be achieved at this stage." Muscat also admitted that if you want to show a stable performance, you must first achieve continuity and stability in terms of personnel.

With one point in this game, Harbour are further away from the title contenders, and in this season's meetings with the top five teams, Harbour have not won so far. What is worrying is that the next time they play against these strong teams, Harbour will play away from home, and they have not won the opponent at home, so it will be very difficult for them to win away from home. After losing Oscar, it will be difficult to maintain his dominance in the league, and the question for Muscat is whether the team will be reinforced.