Dream debut: Shanghai Shenhua won the Chinese Football Super Cup in the first match under the leadership of Slutsky

Leonid Slutsky will attract special attention in Russia in 2024.

There are at least two reasons for this.

Firstly, he is one of the few domestic coaches who are currently working in other countries, if we do not take into account countries from the post-Soviet space.

Andrei Chernyshov also found himself in Asia, but he chose a completely exotic option - the Indian “Mohammedan”.

Secondly, it is extremely curious how the former national team coach will perform after a long pause in his career and whether he will be able to achieve success in completely unfamiliar conditions.

It’s too early to answer this question, but his debut definitely turned out to be fabulous - in the very first match, Shanghai Shenhua won the Chinese Super Cup.

There were prerequisites for this, because the team showed itself well in the off-season.

For example, at the Equality Cup in Qatar, it took second place, defeating Al-Duhail and Santos, and lost heavily only to Zenit.

The management in the transfer market also did a great job.

Among others, the team was joined by ex-Porto defender Wilson Manafa and Brazilian Andre.

Apparently, the new headquarters, which in addition to Leonid Viktorovich included Vasily Berezutsky and Oleg Yarovinsky, managed to quickly establish a warm atmosphere in the locker room.

In any case, they strive to liberate their wards.

Consider their friendly performance of the song “Conversation with Happiness” from the film “Ivan Vasilyevich Changes His Profession” at a gala dinner dedicated to the Chinese New Year.

Already in the first meeting, the Blue Devils faced a city derby with the current national champions Shanghai Port.

Moreover, neighbors are traditionally an inconvenient rival for them.

Since November 2017, Shanghai Shenhua have suffered nine defeats and just one win in 15 matches.

And the last match in the national championship ended in a humiliating home misfire - 0:5.

In addition, “Red Eagles” is still leading the Oscars.

The former midfielder of the Brazilian national team and Chelsea came to the Celestial Empire back in 2017 and settled down.

With his team, he became the national champion twice, including in 2023.

The principal rivals took the Cup of China, thanks to which they got the opportunity to fight for the next trophy.

By the way, “Shanghai Port” was also headed by another coach in the winter - Kevin Muscat.

Before that he worked in Australia, Belgium and Japan.

However, contrary to forecasts, Slutsky’s squad left virtually no chance for their counterparts, although they distinguished themselves only once.

In the opening, she took an overwhelming advantage and was able to score several times.

The powerful Sephas Malele was especially good in front, who competently clung to the balls and made discounts on partners opening into free zones.

Already in the third minute, taking advantage of a wonderful cross from the right flank, he handled the ball in a fight with a defender, but missed the shot from about ten meters away.

Then another foreign player, Ibrahim Amadou, fired powerfully from outside the penalty area and hit the post.

A little later, Malele missed a couple more profitable chances.

At first he dragged the projectile from the left flank to the center, but the goalkeeper coped with his low billiard shot into the far one.

And then the forward completely ran away to rendezvous with Yan Junlin and beat him, but his opponent came to the rescue.

The nominal hosts were remembered only for Lu Wenjun's insidious shot from the penalty line.

The ricochet made Bao Yaxiong’s task even more difficult in this episode, but he still coped with the threat.

But the venerable Oscar turned out to be almost invisible.

In the 55th minute, the Blue Devils absolutely naturally opened the scoring.

Moreover, they were helped by an unexpected attempt to make a clean sheet on a corner kick from João Carlos.

Junling coped with the shot, but no one was able to stop Malele from finishing the ball into the net from a meter away.

Now the Red Eagles were forced to move forward and open up.

To the credit of the team of a domestic specialist, it acted in an exemplary manner in defense and did not allow opponents to even organize approaches to someone else’s goal.

They had more possession of the ball, but almost did not penetrate into the penalty area.

Shanghai Shenhua's counterattacks looked much more interesting.

Malele alone could have scored a hat-trick.

Just look at the moment when he received an excellent cutting pass from a teammate and, finding himself right in front of the goalkeeper, managed to shoot at him.

A little later, the striker inexplicably missed the ball into the empty target from a couple of meters after another save by Junling.

In the end, the Swiss still scored thanks to a rebound, but luck was not on his side here either - the goal was canceled due to offside.

The intrigue finally died when Matheus Dzhussa brought down Carlos in the center of the field, disrupting another fast break, and received a second yellow card.

The reigning champions had enough time to save themselves, but they did not even manage to organize the final assault.

With the final whistle, all Shanghai Shenhua players, along with coaches and other staff, rushed onto the field.

They can be understood, because they managed not only to defeat their principal opponent, but also to win the first Chinese Super Cup in 23 years.

This success is extremely important for Slutsky, since he won his debut trophy outside Russia and the first in eight years.

In 2016, the specialist helped CSKA win RPL gold medals, and later left the army club and moved to the domestic team.

It is not surprising that he also did not hide his emotions and thanked all the fans.

“The team was well prepared as we played a lot of pre-season matches.

Our opponent is strong, but even high-level teams have shortcomings.

We played hard and made more changes.

A victory like this will give you more confidence.

We will maintain our style, competitive spirit and in the new season we will strive to take a higher place in the championship,” Shine quotes him.

His players will have very little time to celebrate, because on March 3 they will have the opening match of the national championship with Meizhou Hakka.

It is curious that Artyom Dzyuba was one of the first to congratulate Slutsky on his long-awaited success.

On his social networks, he posted a photo of the coach with the caption: “I’m proud.”

RT experts who also worked in other countries also joined him.

For example, Yuri Semin, who in addition to Russia competed in New Zealand, Azerbaijan and Ukraine, emphasized that for every mentor, any trophy matters.

“Slutsky is a very good coach who has repeatedly achieved the highest results with CSKA.

He definitely needs to be congratulated.

I wish him further success with the team and good luck.

This is history, because cups attract the attention of fans, sponsors and so on.

Victories in them have enormous weight,” Semin said.

In turn, Boris Ignatiev, who also headed the Chinese Shandong Luneng, on the contrary, urged not to over-praise his colleague ahead of time, but still called the victory incredibly important from the point of view of public relations.

“It will liberate Slutsky and his staff and give fans a reason to quickly run for tickets to the next match.

What do I think about Leonid Viktorovich as a specialist?

I was very impressed with him when I was just starting my career.

Probably, with the Russian national team he never gave the result he expected, after which he went along a path that I do not particularly welcome.

Hence the ambivalent attitude towards him.

But now it has again become clear that Leonid Viktorovich is, after all, a coach, and we will look forward to his new successes,” Ignatiev concluded.