Shandong Luneng brought the curtain down on the Chinese football season with victory in the CFA Cup final over league champions Jiangsu Suning in Suzhou on Saturday. It is the club’s sixth CFA Cup win overall, a record one ahead of Beijing Guoan and Shanghai Shenhua, and a case of third time lucky after being beaten finalists in the previous two seasons. Second half goals from Wang Tong and Graziano Pelle were enough to secure a first trophy for the Shandong side since 2014 After the final whistle Shandong’s players celebrated with the fans who had made the trip to the Suzhou Olympic Stadium The win also secures a place in next season’s AFC Champions League. They join first-time Chinese Super League champions Jiangsu, runners-up Guangzhou Evegrande and Beijing Guoan in the pot for the continental team but Shanghai SIPG, who finished fourth in the reformatted CSL, miss out. Guangzhou Roast Geese? New names needed for Chinese clubs after rule change Cosmin Olaroiu’s side beat 2019 champions Evergrande in a two-legged play-off, while the Beijing side bettered SIPG over two legs to third place. The Shanghai side miss out for the first time since they first qualified for the AFC Champions League in 2016 and they had qualified for the round of 16 in every season since, including this year’s tournament in Doha, Qatar. While Shandong featured Pelle and former Manchester United midfielder Marouane Fellaini – who went close to doubling his side’s lead at 1-0 – the league champions went with an all-domestic line-up having let their foreigners off CFA Cup duty following their title win. “I hope the club will achieve better results,” Shandong head coach Hao Wei said after the game, speaking of adding more silverware to the trophy cabinet.