Dalian Huai edged past Ningbo Professional 1-0 in League One's Regular Season round 24 on Thursday. The single goal decided it, and the hosts moved a point closer to their visitors in the standings.
K. Hansen broke the deadlock in the twenty-eighth minute, and here's the thing — it was the only clear chance either side created. Ningbo kept knocking on the door after that but couldn't find a way through. By then the game had settled into a pattern neither team could break.
Discipline didn't hold up. Su Shihao picked up a yellow card in the forty-first minute, followed closely by Shiming Liu forty-five minutes in. Xu Dongdong and Long Tingwei joined them later, with Lu Kun landing one in stoppage time. Five bookings across ninety minutes suggests a match that got tighter as the clock ran down.
Substitutions came thick and fast after the hour mark. K. Hansen was withdrawn in the sixty-second minute alongside Cui Ming'an, then K. Pang and Lin Wenkai made way for Su Shihao and another outgoing player. Eysajan Elkut and Gao Haisheng were brought on around the seventy-third minute, Qi Xinlei followed, and Liu Yun replaced Long Tingwei in the eighty-seventh.
The result leaves Dalian Huai ten points behind Ningbo Professional in the table. Both sides have played twenty-two matches, but the gap remains three points. Ningbo's nine wins put them a tier above the hosts, who have won six and drawn eight.
Dalian came into this game after a 1-1 draw with Guangzhou Y-Power and a 0-0 stalemate against Dongguan United. Ningbo had just beaten Shaanxi Union 1-0 before that, though they'd lost 2-0 to Changchun Yatai in between. Neither side looked particularly sharp in recent outings, and this match reflected that.