In the late afternoon of September 5, the Chinese Football Association (CFA) officially unveiled the table of matchups for the second round of the 2022 season of the CFA Cup.
Looking back at the first round of the tournament, nine teams from the Chinese Football League First Division managed to advance to the next round. In this round, teams from all four divisions of the Chinese Football Association (CFA), namely the Chinese Super League, the Chinese First Division, the Chinese Second Division and the Chinese Championship, participated.
Among the 18 Chinese Super League teams, apart from the 8 teams in each of the upper and lower halves playing as away games, two teams, Chengdu Rongcheng and Dalian Ren, are facing as home teams, their opponents are Hebei and Zhejiang respectively. The other 14 Chinese Super League teams will play against nine teams from the Central League that just advanced to the second round, the top three teams from the 2022 Central League B, and the two winning teams from the 2022 Central Champions League.
According to the established matchup table, there is a key battle to watch out for, that is, the defending champion Shandong Taishan will face Qingdao Hainiu, which will be a long-lost LuYu Derby rekindling the flame. The last time the two teams met in the Chinese Super League was back in the 2013 season.
In the past, Qingdao Hainiu often posed a challenge to Shandong Taishan, the "big brother", but nowadays, Qingdao Hainiu, who is playing in the Central League, is making every effort to get promoted, so the AFC Cup may not be the primary preparation target for them, and it is expected that they will send a substitute team to participate in the competition.
It is worth mentioning that this season's Qingdao Hainiu, in addition to the head coach Yin Tiesheng had coached Shandong Taishan, Liu Junshuai, Xie Wenneng, Cao Sheng and other players are also from Shandong Taishan, I do not know if they can make a difference against their old boss in the game.
