Brazilians Oscar and Hulk showed that there is life after playing in Europe with as they lifted the Chinese Super League title with a 2-1 win over Beijing Rehene.
And in the process, Shanghai SIPG brought Guangzhou Evergrande’s dominance of the CSL to an end.
Needing a draw to claim the trophy, goals from Odil Akhmedov and Wu Lei sealed the title for SIPG with one game left in the campaign, ending Evergrande’s run of seven straight league championships.
The league win was boss Vitor Pereira’s first with the club since taking over late last year from Andre Villas-Boas, who steered big-spending SIPG to second place in his solitary season in China.
Pereira said: “We have broken Evergrande’s monopoly of the last seven years.
“That was an amazing challenge and we have done it. This is my first year in China and I’m very happy to be able to do this.”
The title is the club’s first since gaining promotion to the top flight at the end of the 2012 season while known as Shanghai East Asia.
The club changed their name to Shanghai SIPG for the 2013 campaign after being purchased by the Shanghai International Port Group.
The victory was delivered courtesy of a curling, dipping strike from Uzbekistan international Akhmedov, who gave SIPG the lead in the 20th minute before Wu claimed his 27th goal of the season two minutes into the second half.
Makhete Diop scored a consolation for Beijing 25 minutes from time.
Evergrande had won the title every year since gaining promotion to the Chinese Super League in 2011, but the misery of Fabio Cannavaro’s team was further compounded on Wednesday by a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Chongqing Lifan.
