Last night’s results set up two “derbies” in the CFA Cup semifinals as Shandong Luneng will travel to Qingdao while Jiangsu and Shenhua face off. There was plenty of pain last night with Beijing Guoan and Henan Jianye crashing out on penalties while Shenhua’s derby dominance continued with a win over Shenxin.
Qingdao Hainiu 6-5 (pk) Henan Jinaye
Qingdao will get a storybook semifinal as the only China League side remaining in the competition gets to host provincial rivals Shandong Luneng. The seasiders opened up scoring in the opening half, but couldn’t hold onto the league against the top flight Henan, who equalized in the 52nd minute. From there the two sides held on until penalties, where a victorious Qingdao emerged.
Beijing Guoan 4-6 (pk) Shandong Luneng
These two sides battled back and forth throughout the night, with each going down to 10 men, but only one remained standing in the end. Guoan drew first blood just past the half hour mark, a beautiful goal by Erton, but Shandong was able to find an equalizer late in the second half and Guoan simply couldn’t find a winner, despite plenty of pressure. It went to penalty kicks and Manzano made some odd choices for his kick takers, sitting Piao Cheng, Chen Zhizhao, and Zhang Chengdong and allowing Darko Matic and Xu Yunlong to take penalties, Xu missed, and it was goodnight Guoan.
Shanghai Shenhua 4-2 Shanghai Shenxin
After an absolutely dreadful first-half, Shenhua came back from behind to knock city rivals Shenxin out of the cup and win by a scoreline which suggested the home side had an easier time of things that they actually did. In a match marred by a second half rumpus after a controversial challenge on Gio Moreno (see main pic), both sides struggled in the humid Shanghai night. On loan striker Utaka caused a lot of problems fora home defence which featured three midfielders playing out of position, but Shenhua’s new Brazilian striker Henrique scored a second-half brace, as did back-from-injury Moreno who put in a performance which was both wasteful and majestic in equal measure.
Qingdao Zhongneng 1-2 Jiangsu Sainty
The other Qingdao side was also still in the competition and may have had thoughts of glory after going 1-0 up in the 16th minute. However, Jiangsu was too much for the lower league side, with a five minute burst of energy that saw them score twice, in the 36th and 41st minute, and then hold on.
