Beijing Guoan striker Yu Dabao. (Photo : Getty Images)
Capital city squad Beijing Guoan FC had finally earned their first win in the 2016 Chinese Super League season with a 3-0 thrashing of Hangzhou Greentown FC on the road at the Yellow Dragon Sports Center in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China last Sunday, April 17th.
Turkish striker Burak Yilmaz finally suited up for the Imperial Guards this season and immediately made his presence felt by netting the opening goal against Hangzhou at the 63rd minute.
The 30-year-old goal scorer "picked up the ball outside of the penalty before smashing home a lovely low strike" to help give Beijing its first win of the season, as reported by Goal.
Local midfielder Zhang Xizhe scored the second goal of the contest just one minute later, off a rebound from another Yilmaz shot, before Brazilian midfielder Renato Augusto sealed the win at the 78th minute to complete the team's three-goal haul in the match.
Those three goals are also the first goals scored by Beijing Guoan in the newly-opened China top flight season as the team had been goalless in each of their first three games this year.
Yilmaz was sidelined in the first three games of Beijing this season because of an injury and in his debut performance, the Turkey international proved that he is worth every penny of the €8 million transfer fee paid by the CSL club to Super Lig side Galatasaray SK to acquire him in February.
The dominating victory came just in time for head coach Alberto Zaccheroni, who had been under fire after his team failed to earn any wins in their first three fixtures, as per the India Times.
Recent rumors had emerged that Zaccheroni could be replaced by Guangzhou Evergrande's head coach Luis Felipe Scolari as the Southern China Tigers are also contemplating on sacking the World Cup-winning manager following a disappointing campaign in this year's AFC Champions League competitions.
South China Morning Post reported that "the vultures have been circling over the Workers' Stadium, with Beijing Guoan manager Alberto Zaccheroni facing the axe already".
The report also mentioned that if Scolari gets fired, he will unlikely move abroad as "things are much rosier on the domestic front", insinuating that he may head Beijing Guoan if ever that happens.
It ended, however, by stating that the rumors "about Big Phil and Zaccheroni might be wide of the mark" but that "it's only a matter of time before someone gets the boot" this season.
