Beijing Guoan opened their 2026 Chinese Super League season with a tidy 2-0 win at Wuhan Three Towns, a result that felt less like a surprise than a useful piece of narrative construction – the veteran, the striker and a new coach's game plan all doing their predictable work.

The context mattered. Fresh off a Chinese Super Cup triumph, Guoan arrived in Wuhan with a thinner-than-ideal back line, due to a string of injuries.

Coach Nick Montgomery's second competitive match in charge began, by sheer necessity, with enforced improvisation. Into the breach stepped 37‑year‑old right‑back Wang Gang, whose industriousness and experience proved decisive.

Wang, who shrugged off the physical toll of age with a neat combination of timing and guile, set up the opening goal on the stroke of half‑time. He shook off a defender in the 45th minute and delivered a measured cross that Fabio Abreu, last year's CSL Golden Boot winner and still very much a finishing force, met with a powerful header.

Seven minutes into the second half, Wang once again found himself in the thick of the action, blocking a clearing attempt by Three Towns goalkeeper Fang Jingqi.

Zhang Yuning pounced immediately to fire in the loose ball, wrapping up the scoring as Beijing kept the hosts off the board to start the league campaign with a relatively routine win.