The game petered out to penalties and after Elkeson missed Guoan’s Renato Augusto scored to make sure they would have at least one more round in the Yanjing Beer 2018 CFA Cup.

Elkeson missing, as he failed to take chances to put the game to bed within normal time, is apt.

With that statement signing, the die was cast. SIPG became the most hated team in the league, at least by the clubs that matter .

It’s a remarkable achievement for a team that was only promoted to the CSL in 2013.

The Brazilian, now the record scoring foreigner in CSL history, joined an SIPG that was managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson, the former England boss brought in when SIPG took full control over the club in 2014.

That set expectations and they have not yet been met.

Arguably, SIPG are a microcosm of Chinese football. Expected to win. When they don’t, no matter how close they come, it is a disaster. The rumours are now that Vitor Pereira will follow Eriksson and his immediate predecessor Andres Villas-Boas out of the door at Shanghai Stadium.

At the same time, you could argue that SIPG over-performed. They’ve finished ninth, fifth, second, third and second in their five CSL seasons. They are third now.

In only three seasons of Champions League competition, they have reached the knockouts each time.

But just like last night, they have failed at clutch moments.

Last season, they were 3-2 up at half-time away to Liaoning – the bottom team in the league, no less – and drew 3-3. Evergrande meanwhile won 4-3 against the other relegated team, Yanbian Funde.

That was the 27th game of the 30 game season and SIPG were still in the hunt at that stage, despite the dropped points.

The next game, with nine points left to play for, the teams went in seven points apart – mathematically possible, as the saying goes – but once again SIPG shirked the chance.

They lost to Guangzhou R&F in Shanghai, while Evergrande battered Guizhou Zhicheng 5-1 to win the league in style.

The nine-point gap with six points available meant there was only pride to play for in the last couple of games for SIPG.

They managed that in one and not in the last game of the season to finish the league six points behind Evergrande.

They had bested Evergrande in an epic two legs in the AFC Champions League but lost the semi-final, which is essentially the East Asia final, to eventual champions Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan.

Worst of all, it ended with them losing to Shanghai Shenhua over two legs in the CFA Cup final.

Shenhua, a team they had beaten 6-1 in the league just weeks before. A team they have come to generally get the better of and finish above since they returned to the CSL. The team that hates them more than any other.

This season, SIPG started off well, very well, negotiating the group stage of the Champions League and racing to the top of the league.

But they are out of Asia, have surrendered top spot since the league returned and are now out of the Cup.

For the team sponsored by the Port Group, the ship may have sailed on silverware for another season.

And you have to feel that Pereira will pay the price just as Sven did before Villas Boas was driven round the bend by the CFA suits and Evergrande car conspiracies that he thought the Dakar Rally was a better option than managing the CSL’s punchline.

Is the sense of expectation undue? Perhaps, but it has always been there.

It was original owner Gu Xenbao’s dream to create “China’s Manchester United” and the club have achieved just that: they are the team that everyone loves to hate and for their fans the team they hate to love.

As for Guoan, they go on to play Shanghai Shenhua on Saturday in the China derby and a chance to extend their lead in the table.

For fans of both sides it’s a chance to laugh at SIPG.