Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Guangzhou: Dragan Stojkovic is back coaching in Asian football two years after ending his five-year stint at the helm of J.League side Nagoya Grampus after joining Chinese Super League (CSL) outfit Guangzhou R&F.
Stojkovic, who led Nagoya to the semi-finals of the 2009 AFC Champions League before guiding them to their first J.League title the following year, replaces Romanian coach Cosmin Contra, with the 50-year-old Serb brought into to reverse Guangzhou R&F’s flagging domestic season and get them back playing in Asia’s premier club competition.
"We hope the new coach will take us out of our current position. And we want to achieve more in the next two seasons. Our goal is to to catch up with the leading domestic clubs and qualify for the AFC Champions League,” Lu Yi, Vice General Manager of club owners the R&F Properties Group, was quoted as saying in Saturday’s online edition of the China Daily.
The Blue Lions have already experienced the highest level of Asian club football after becoming one of China’s four representatives in this year’s AFC Champions League alongside Shandong Luneng, Beijing Guoan, and 2013 ACL champions and city rivals Guangzhou Evergrande, who are the only one of the quartet remaining in the competition.
After defeating Warriors FC and Central Coast Mariners in the play-offs, Guangzhou R&F made a stunning start to the tournament proper when goals from Moroccan forward Hamed-Allah Abderrazzaq and Wang Song saw the debutants defeat 2008 ACL champions Gamba Osaka 2-0 in Japan.
However, it was downhill from then on in for the 2014 CSL third-place finishers who picked up just one more point, a respectable goalless draw in South Korea against 2010 ACL champions Seongnam FC, as Guangzhou R&F finished at the foot of the Group F table, a clear six points behind the leading trio of Gamba, Seongnam, and Thailand side Buriram United.
Guangzhou R&F’s poor continental performance has been mirrored somewhat in the ongoing 2015 Chinese Super League, with the club sitting 12th in the 16-team table, with time running out for the Blue Lions.
"Every game of the last six rounds is like a final game for us. We need to improve the team and bring back beautiful and technical football,” said Stoijkovic, whose first match in charge will be the Round 25 clash away to Shanghai Shenxin on September 13.
Photo: AFP