Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 7y

Beijing Guoan sack coach Gonzalez following loss to Chongqing Lifan

Beijing Guoan sacked Portuguese coach Jose Gonzalez after the former Chinese Super League champions lost for the fifth time in 12 games, a 1-0 defeat at the hands of Chongqing Lifan on Friday.

Wu Qing scored six minutes into the game as Beijing continued a run that has seen them drop to seventh in the standings and 13 points behind leaders Guangzhou Evergrande, who face Yanbian Funde on Saturday afternoon.

"Beijing Guoan's club board has decided that, as of 2 June 2017, Mr. Jose Gonzalez will no longer serve the club as head coach," the statement read. "The Chinese coaching team will take over his responsibilities for the moment.

"Right now our team is in a very difficult situation, but we are confident we can bring it back on track in a very short time. We appreciate the understanding and support from the press and fans."

Gonzalez, who steered Granada away from relegation in the second half of the 2015-16 Liga season, took over at the start of the year having previously worked at the club as an assistant to former head coach Gregorio Manzano.

In other action on Friday, Guangzhou R&F's struggles continued as Dragan Stojkovic's side conceded an injury-time equaliser from Cameroon's Christian Bassogog after Renatinho looked to have given the visitors their first league win in six games.

Tianjin Teda, meanwhile, had a brace from Brown Ideye to thank for their 2-1 win over Shanghai Shenhua, who took the lead through Obafemi Martins before Brown struck in 36th minute to level the scores.

Shenhua's Li Peng was sent off in the 78th minute for two bookable offences and, in the final minute of normal time, Brown struck again to give Tianjin a much needed win.

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