With a former Italian World Cup winner managing Guangzhou Evergrande and a Japanese great on the park, it's promising to be an intriguing night in Guangzhou. 

Melbourne Victory is in China to face powerhouse Guangzhou at the Tianhe Stadium. 

Meanwhile, back in Australia after their Big Blue win over Victory in the A-League, Sydney FC host Shanghai SIPG's array of stars, including Brazil's Hulk. 

It's two of the most successful A-League clubs against the Chinese Super League’s most powerful. For insights into the two Chinese Super League sides, our preview expert is Cameron Wilson.

The Scot is a Shanghai local having lived there since 2005. He is a leading international commentator on Chinese football and is also the editor of https://wildeastfootball.net/

Shanghai SIPG

It’s tough to call because they have made a pretty good start to the season in China.

They got beat last weekend by Chongqing at home, but the goal conceded was in the last five minutes and it was an absolute howler from their keeper. It should’ve been a draw. The reason why people are unsure of them is that they lost star player Wu Lei, who joined Spanish club Espanyol.

Last season he scored 27 goals in 29 games. Take that sort of player out of your team, of course, you’ll struggle. SIPG basically didn’t sign anyone in the window in winter, and there is simply not anyone else Chinese who is in the same class as Wu Lei.

He was literally irreplaceable. That said, they’re doing okay without him so far. And last weekend Hulk scored an absolutely stunning goal - a long-range thunderbolt.

Also Odil Ahmedov, the Uzbek holding midfielder is a very underrated player. He’ll definitely play as the +1.

 

He’s the only Asian foreigner SIPG has got so for sure, he’ll play. Lu Wenjun has tried to step into Wu Lei’s shoes but he’s not quite as good. But he can still be dangerous.

And the keeper is good, even though he made a bad mistake last weekend.

Guangzhou Evergrande

Guangzhou Evergrande is in a strange place right now.

They announced a strange policy at the start of the season, basically they’ll deliberately not pick their best team for every Chinese Super League (CSL) game.

Why? Basically, they’re going to use only two foreigners instead of the maximum allowed three. It’s a political decision.

It’s made the CSL seem a little strange and it damages the sport’s integrity.

But in the ACL they use the AFC 3+1 rule, so the last ACL game they had the player they signed from Everton [formerly of Sunderland] Tyias Browning, he played in that game.

 

Former Everton player Tyias Browning

That’s the only game he’s played so far, so it’s a little hard to call, given their selections are different for CSL and ACL.

Chinese football is in a weird place right now. But the ACL is important to them, they’ve won it twice before which shows they’ve always taken it seriously. Unlike say (J-League side) Sanfrecce who recently basically played a reserve side in one of their ACL games.

Generally though, in China, the ACL is taken very seriously. Even if you look at the attendances of the games, they're in some cases higher in the ACL than the CSL.

A-League teams’ perception in China

The A-League is quite well respected in China. Chinese football fans see A-League sides as competitive and quite physical and have a good winning spirit.

They play with a determination to win. A lot of Chinese fans often deride their own teams for not being determined enough, but that’s something generally fans in China recognise in A-League teams.

 

There aren’t as many Australian players in the CSL simply because of the change to eligibility rules. Until recently there was a lot.

The +1 rule was dropped. It’s not because they thought Australian players weren’t any good.