Football
Michael Church, Asia correspondent 7y

Carlos Tevez strikes in Shanghai Shenhua win; Guangzhou R&F victorious

Carlos Tevez scored his first goal since March as Shanghai Shenhua handed the Chinese Super League's last placed side Yanbian Funde a 2-0 loss to temporarily take the pressure off coach Gustavo Poyet.

The win was Shenhua's first in the league since early April and moves Poyet's team up to eighth in the standings.

But there was a downside for Shenhua as Tevez was taken off eight minutes into the second half with a suspected recurrence of the calf injury that has blighted his time in China so far this season.

"Tevez's goal was very smart," says Poyet. "But he didn't feel great with his calf after the goal, so he asked for be substituted off. I don't think his injury is serious, but we will see what the doctor says.

"We should have already decided the match during the first half. We had lots of opportunities during the first 45 minutes and we could have scored three times.

"If my players had been more confident and grasped the chances, we would have nailed it down it there. Last year we lost the game here, this year we won."

Tevez put Shenhua in front after just 13 minutes when Fredy Guarin robbed the home defence before setting up the Argentinian for a straightforward finish.

Cao Yunding then added the second just after the midpoint of the second half after bursting through the Yanbian defence as Shenhua ended a run of six league games without a win.

Early season pace setters Guangzhou R&F picked up their first league win since defeating Jiangsu Suning on April 21 with a 2-1 victory over Tianjin Teda courtesy of goals from Eran Zahavi, who joins Ricardo Goulart at the top of the scorers' charts with 10 goals, and Renatinho.

Tianjin Quanjian had Alexandre Pato's goal to thank for handing Liaoning Whowin a 2-1 defeat while Diego Tardelli's 93rd minute goal salvaged a point for Shandong Luneng in their meeting with Guizhou Zhicheng.

Papis Cisse had given Shandong the lead in the 31st minute before goals from Liang Xueming and Nikola Jelavic turned the game in favour of Guizhou ahead of Tardelli's late equaliser.

Chongqing Lifan's Liu Han scored his side's goal 20 minutes from time to seal a draw with Changchun Yatai.

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