The craziest FA Cup in history: the strong team is right, and the dark horse is standing?

Reporter Chen Yong reports The results of the draw for the 1/8 finals of the FA Cup were released, and the outside world exclaimed in disbelief: 4 of the top 5 teams in the league were divided into the top half, and these 4 strong teams had to fight each other in the 1/8 finals.

As in the 2024 season, before the FA Cup quarter-finals, teams will be re-drawn and 16 teams will be re-seated, while the home-and-away status will also be determined by draw from the quarter-finals to the final.

Last season, Beijing Guoan, Shanghai Shenhua and Shanghai Port were in the top half, while Shandong Taishan and Chengdu Rongcheng were in the bottom half. In terms of matchups, Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Shenhua met in the quarterfinals, Shanghai Shenhua advanced, and in the semifinals, Shanghai Shenhua played against Shanghai Port, and Shanghai Port advanced. In the second half, Shandong Taishan and Chengdu Rongcheng met in the semi-finals, and Shandong Taishan advanced. The final championship was won by Shanghai Port.

Unlike the 2024 season, the intensity of the whole game is getting better, the 2025 season of the FA Cup, in the 1/8 finals, the craziest duel will be staged, the 1/8 finals in the first half of the region are Shanghai Port VS Shanghai Shenhua, Shandong Taishan VS Chengdu Rongcheng (the top team is at home), this situation is exactly the same as the FA Cup semifinals in the 2024 season, and even the order of home and away is completely the same. Only this time, these 4 teams were divided into a half.

However, in this season, Shanghai Shenhua's performance is significantly better than that of Shanghai Port, and Chengdu Rongcheng's performance is also significantly better than that of Shandong Taishan.

Fortunately, the 1/4 finals in the first half of the region do not need to meet immediately, the winner of Shanghai Port VS Shanghai Shenhua is at home against Henan Club Jiuzu Dukang VS Zhejiang Club Greentown, and the winner of Shandong Taishan VS Chengdu Rongcheng is away against Qingdao Manatee VS Guangxi Hengchen. In the semi-finals after that, the semi-district teams of Shandong Taishan and Chengdu Rongcheng have the advantage of home.

Among the top five teams in the league, Beijing Guoan is alone in the lower half, they played Dalian InBev Haifa away in the 1/8 finals, and then the winner of Dalian Kuncheng vs Qingdao West Coast in the 1/4 finals, and then in the semi-finals, this 1/4 half has home advantage. The other 1/4 of the bottom half of the zone are Guangdong Guangzhou Leopards vs Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, Shaanxi United Moon Bo vs Yunnan Yukun (the winner will be at home in the next leg).

At present, Beijing Guoan's signing position is the best among the strong teams, but the process of the game is not without variables: first in the 1/8 finals, Beijing Guoan played away, and the opponent was Dalian InBev Haifa, which has the craziest ball market in the Chinese Super League; The subsequent 1/4 finals and Qingdao West Coast are very likely to meet, Beijing Guoan is still playing away, and Qingdao West Coast is also one of the teams that have performed well in the Chinese Super League this season; After the semi-finals, the other 1/4 division in the lower half of the region has Tianjin Jinmen Tigers, who are currently ranked 6th in the league, and Yunnan Yukun, a promoted team from the Chinese Super League.

In the past 5 years, the teams participating in the FA Cup finals have been strong teams: Shandong Taishan VS Jiangsu Suning in the 2020 season, Shandong Taishan VS Shanghai Port in the 2021 season, Shandong Taishan VS Zhejiang in the 2022 season, Shandong Taishan VS Shanghai Shenhua in the 2023 season, and Shandong Taishan VS Shanghai Port in the 2024 season, of which the Zhejiang team in the 2022 season is also ranked 3rd in the league.

Counting the history of the FA Cup, the number of real dark horses winning championships is actually even more limited. On the championship list, Shandong Taishan won the championship 8 times, and Shanghai Shenhua and Beijing Guoan won the cup 4 times and tied for second place. In addition to the three old powerhouses, the only teams that are still in the Chinese Super League have a history of winning the cup, Shanghai Port, Qingdao Manatee and Tianjin Jinmen Tigers.

When Taishan won the championship in 1995, he ranked 6th in the league; Chongqing, the champion in 2000, was ranked 4th in the first two seasons; In 2002, when Manatee won the Cup, it ranked 8th in the league, and in 2003, when Guoan won the FA Cup, the league only ranked 9th; In the 2011 season, Tianjin TEDA won the league 10th place, but they finished second in the league in the 2010 season.

In the 2013 season, Guizhou Renhe was also a strong team at that time, and finally ranked 5th in the league; In 2015, Jiangsu Suning won the cup with the 9th place in the league; In 2017 and 2019, Shenhua won the FA Cup with the 11th and 13th place in the league respectively, which is the lowest-ranked champion in the history of the FA Cup, but it is really far-fetched to say that Shenhua is a dark horse.

Then, in the 2025 season, if a dark horse emerges in the FA Cup, it is still very interesting: although the strong teams gather in the upper half, the 4 strong teams will meet in advance in the 1/8 finals, which means that the probability of the dark horse reaching the top 4 will increase accordingly, and as for Beijing Guoan in the lower half of the region, the road to promotion may not be smooth. What's more noteworthy is that many mid-table teams have little pressure to be relegated this season, and there is even more reason to go all out in the FA Cup.