On the night of September 14th, the 18th round of the 2022 Chinese Super League season was nearing its end, with five of the key matches coming to a close. The marquee match between Shandong Taishan and Wuhan Sanzhen ended in a 1-1 draw, with Sanzhen still leading the table by four points ahead of Taishan despite having played one less game. In the relegation battle, Guangzhou City significantly boosted their relegation hopes with a narrow 1-0 win over Guangzhou, narrowing the points gap with Cangzhou Lions in the safety zone to three points.
San Zhen drew 1-1 with Taishan on the road after Gao Junyi's first goal, although it was a bit unfortunate, but the team still deserves praise for missing 4 foreigners. Currently, Sanzhen is leading the table with 44 points from 16 matches, while Taishan has 40 points and has played one less match.
Songshan Longmen struggled to hold on to third place in the table after a 0-1 defeat at home to Jinmen Tigers. Meizhou and Zhejiang, on the other hand, exchanged blanks and ended in a 0-0 draw. Songshan Longmen, Meizhou and Shenhua are ranked third to fifth with 30 points, while Zhejiang is sixth with 20 points and Rongcheng is seventh with 27 points.
Guoan beat Hebei 3-1 at home and climbed to 26 points, moving up to eighth place. Seaport did not play this round and ranked ninth with 25 points, while Jinmen Tigers won all three points on the road to reach 23 points and secure the tenth place. Yatai, Cheung Kong, Shenzhen, Dalian People and Lions did not play this round and stayed at 19, 17, 16, 15 and 12 points respectively.
In terms of the relegation zone, second-bottom Guangzhou City beat third-bottom Guangzhou 1-0, Guangzhou accumulated 11 points from 18 matches, Guangzhou City 9 points from 17 matches, while Hebei scored only 3 points from 17 matches. However, the points gap between Guangzhou, Guangzhou City and fourth-bottom ranked Cangzhou Lions remains within three points.
