Carlos Tevez marked his Chinese Super League (CSL) debut with a goal from the penalty spot as Shanghai Shenhua beat Jiangsu Suning 4-0 on Sunday while a brace from midfielder Paulinho sealed a winning start for champions Guangzhou Evergrande over Beijing Guoan.
Carlos Tevez marked his Chinese Super League (CSL) debut with a goal from the penalty spot as Shanghai Shenhua beat Jiangsu Suning 4-0 on Sunday while a brace from midfielder Paulinho sealed a winning start for champions Guangzhou Evergrande over Beijing Guoan.
Tevez, signed amid reports of a record-breaking pay deal from Boca Juniors in January, doubled his side's advantage after Giovanni Moreno had put Gustavo Poyet's team on their way to victory when he scored following a free kick from the former Manchester United forward.
Mao Jianqin put further distance between the teams before Moreno claimed his second goal as Shenhua moved into a share of top spot in the early standings with cross-city rivals Shanghai SIPG.
"I am extremely happy for Tevez," said Poyet. "Goals are important and he has started his CSL journey with goals. The four goals are all linked to him but he needs the team to work as a whole."
Guangzhou had Paulinho to thank for a winning start to their title defence when the former Tottenham Hotspur midfielder scored four minutes from time to give Luiz Felipe Scolari's side all three points with a 2-1 win over Beijing.
Paulinho had opened the scoring from close range in the 19th minute before a penalty by Burak Yilmaz meant the teams went into the halftime break level.
Red cards for Zhao Hejing and Zheng Zhi for separate incidents meant the final minutes were played by 10 men on each side and Paulinho claimed the decisive goal three minutes from time.
The new season kicked off on Friday when Liaoning Whowin were held to a 1-1 draw by Guizhou Zhicheng while on Saturday a hat-trick by Elkeson steered big-spending Shanghai SIPG to a 5-1 win over Changchun Yatai.
Changchun took the lead in the 26th minute thanks to a dipping strike by Fan Xiaodong before SIPG's Brazilian trio of Elkeson, Hulk and former Chelsea man Oscar ran riot.
Hulk levelled from the penalty spot before Elkeson's treble put SIPG 4-1 up just before the hour mark and Wu Lei added a fifth goal in the dying seconds.
"I'm very happy that we won," said SIPG coach Andre Villas-Boas, who replaced Sven Goran Eriksson at the helm at the end of last season. "The first game of the season is very, very important.
"We conceded first but in the end we won. The players showed their strong mentality to come back from behind."
Alexandre Pato struggled on his debut for Tianjin Quanjian as the Brazilian missed a string of chances in his side's 2-0 loss to Guangzhou R&F while Chongqing Lifan were held to a 0-0 draw in their opener by Yanbian Funde.
Felix Magath's Shandong Luneng had a 2-0 win over Tianjin Teda but there was disappointment for Manuel Pellegrini, who saw his Hebei China Fortune side held to a 0-0 draw by Henan Jianye.
(This article has not been edited by DNA's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
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