The passionate battle between Beijing Guoan and promotion rival Chengdu Rongcheng in Meizhou was undoubtedly a wonderful visual feast. However, in the first half, a superb mistake by Guoan goalkeeper Housen dramatized the scene, as he accidentally slipped his hand while catching an overhead kick, and the ball flew impartially into his own goal. Immediately after, Abdu Hemiti was shown a red card by the referee after a foul on Zhang Yuning sparked a clash by headbutting his opponent. In the second half, Chengdu Rongcheng suffered another blow as two players were red-carded, and with an 8-man squad struggling to cope with the game, they eventually lost 2-3 to Beijing Guoan. The chaos at the end of the game was even more eye-opening: five minutes of extra time was added on, and after just over three minutes of play, referee Li Zheng blew the final whistle, which the Chengdu Rongcheng coaching staff expressed their strong dissatisfaction with. The referee then sent the players back to the field to continue the game, and the game ended after a minute or so.
In the fourth round of the league derby between Wuhan Changjiang and Wuhan Sanzhen, Changjiang striker Forbes' goal was also disallowed after a slight confrontation, reminiscent of the hugely controversial goal call in the 2020 season match between Guoan and Taishan. Referee Wang Zhe, after watching a VAR replay, ruled that Hu Rentian had fouled Ren Hang first and the goal was disallowed.
Also in the fourth round of the league, Guangzhou faced Shanghai Seaport, who beat Guangzhou 1-0 with a goal from newcomer Feng Jin. But there was another controversy at the end of the game: in the 87th minute, Guangzhou's corner kick was cleared out of the penalty area by a Harbour player. U23 international Liu Zhurun took the ball and launched a fast counter-attack, once shaking off Guangzhou's Hou Yu's defense, but the referee suddenly blew the whistle! This was a clear opportunity to score. However, the referee did not follow the principle of attacking favor and stopped the game directly and showed a yellow card to Hou Yu, which triggered Liu Zhurun's great anger, and he kicked the ball into the air on the spot.
