Mikel, Ighalo Thrashed On First League Matches In China

Both John Obi Mikel and Odion Ighalo started their campaign in the Chinese Super League, CSL, on the losing side yesterday.

The Nigeria internationals lost with their new clubs on their first appearances in the Chinese topflight after joining from the English Premier League.

Mikel made his debut for Tianjin TEDA on Saturday in their 2-0 defeat to Shandong Luneng at Jinan Olympic Sports Center Stadium.

The 29-year-old captained the team and played for 90 minutes, but was unable to rescue Jaime Pacheco’s men from bowing to the hosts.

Binbin Liu and Papiss Cisse’ strikes in the 78th and 82nd minutes respectively.

However, Brown Ideye, who recently joined from Olympiacos, was not listed for the tie.

Tianjin TEDA, now occupying the 15th position in the CSL table, will face Jiangsu Suning FC on March 10 to seek their first win.

Also, former Watford frontman, Odion Ighalo and his Changchun Yatai side crumbled 5-1 to Shanghai SIPG FC at the Shanghai Stadium.

The Nigerian forward played all 90 minutes but was caged as Elkeson’s hat-trick plus Hulk and Lei Wu’s goals handed his team a massive defeat despite that Xiaodong Fan gave them an early lead.

Changchun Yatai will be looking for their first league win when they face Guangzhou R&F F.C. on March 12.