Preview: Cangzhou Mighty Lions vs. Beijing Guoan - prediction, team news, lineups

Meanwhile, the away side make the trip to Shijiazhuang in search of consecutive wins having recently returned to winning ways.

Match preview

Beijing Guoan secured a second straight home win by seeing off the threat of Shenzhen FC in a resounding 4-1 victory at the Wuhua Hengpi Football Town on Tuesday.

Xie Feng's men raced to a three-goal lead inside the opening hour thanks to a brace from Zhang Yuning either side of Yu Dabao's strike before Frank Acheampong pulled one back for his side, only for Ziming Wang to put the final nail in the coffin late on.

The Imperial Guards have moved up to fifth place in the league table and are now just three points shy of current leaders Wuhan Three Towns.

Next up is the task of taking on an opposing outfit who have only won one of the previous seven meetings between the teams all the way back to 2015.

However, that solitary triumph did come in the most recent encounter on June 5 when Saturday's visitors fell to a shock 2-1 defeat.

Cangzhou were beaten for the second game running following a 2-0 loss at the hands of Tianjin Jinmen Tiger in Wednesday's encounter.

The game was decided in the opening half where goals from Weijun Xie and Dun Ba in a four-minute spell put Svetozar Sapuric's men to the sword.

Having picked up just two of the last 12 points available, the Mighty Lions have now slipped down to 14th place in the standings and are in need of a pick-me-up.

Off the back of a first home defeat in seven outings last time out, Saturday's hosts will be looking to make it up to their fans with a perfect response this weekend.

Cangzhou Mighty Lions Chinese Super League form:

Beijing Guoan Chinese Super League form:

Team News

Following his double last time out, Zhang Yuning currently leads the scoring charts with five goals and is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Quanbo Guo and Li Ke remain sidelined with shoulder and knee injuries respectively, ruling them out of action for Beijing Guoan this weekend.

Meanwhile, The duo of Pengxiang Jin and Samuel Adegbenro are major doubts after missing the hosts' victory over Shenzhen FC in midweek.

With Cangzhou now yet to find the back of the net in three straight games, Svetozar Sapuric might be tempted to alter his front line for this one in a bid to get the team firing once again.

Stefan Mihajlovic is amongst those who could earn a recall to the starting Xi on Saturday off the back of an unused substitute appearance last time out.

Cangzhou Mighty Lions possible starting lineup:

Shao; Yang, Liu, Yang, Jiang; Guo, Chen, Lin; Liu, Maritu, Mihajlovic

Beijing Guoan possible starting lineup:

Zou; Liang, Yu, Zhang; Kang, Chi, Memisevic, Wang; Zhang, Yuning, Dabro

We say: Cangzhou Mighty Lions 1-3 Beijing Guoan

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