The 93rd 2019 Lunar New Year Cup (Chinese: 豬年賀歲盃; literally: "Year of the Pig Celebrate New Year Cup"), was the annual edition of the

Lunar New Year Cup The Lunar New Year Cup, previously known as the Carlsberg Challenge or the Carlsberg Cup, is an annual invitational football tournament organised in Hong Kong by the Hong Kong Football Association (HKFA) since 1908. It is usually held on the firs ...

, held in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

to celebrate the

Lunar New Year Lunar New Year is the beginning of a calendar year whose months are moon cycles, based on the lunar calendar or lunisolar calendar. The Lunar New Year as a celebration is observed by numerous cultures. It is also named " Chinese New Year" becau ...

in early January 2019. This year, four teams were invited to participate, playing two games each in a

knockout tournament A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking ...

Format

The two

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

for the four participating teams were held on the first day of the

Pig The pig (''Sus domesticus''), often called swine, hog, or domestic pig when distinguishing from other members of the genus '' Sus'', is an omnivorous, domesticated, even-toed, hoofed mammal. It is variously considered a subspecies of ''Sus s ...

(5 February 2019). The winning teams entered the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: *Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...

and the losing teams play the third-place playoff (Both matches on the third day of the Lunar New Year, i.e. 7 February.) Draw in the semi-finals and third-place playoff were settled by

penalty shootout The penalty shootout is a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied. The rules for penalty shootouts vary between sports and even different competitions; however, the usual form is similar to pen ...

directly, that means no

extra time Overtime or extra time is an additional period of play specified under the rules of a sport to bring a game to a decision and avoid declaring the match a tie or draw where the scores are the same. In some sports, this extra period is played onl ...

would be played. For the final, a thirty-minute

would be played after a draw. A further draw would lead to the penalty shootout.

Teams

Four teams were invited to participate: * HK LNY Selection Team ''(as known as

Hong Kong League XI The Hong Kong League XI, also known as the Hong Kong XI or Hong Kong League Selection, is a football team which represents the Hong Kong First Division League in exhibition matches, mainly the Lunar New Year Cup. The team is selected from the ...

)'' (hosts) *

Sagan Tosu is a Japanese professional football club, currently playing in the J1 League. The team is located in Tosu, Saga Prefecture. ''Sagan'' is a coined word with a couple of meanings behind it. One of its homophones is in Japanese. This symbolises ...

Auckland City Auckland City was a territorial authority with city status covering the central isthmus of the urban area of Auckland, New Zealand. It was governed by the Auckland City Council from 1989 to 2010, and as a territory within the wider Auckland R ...

Shandong Luneng Shandong Taishan Football Club () is a professional football club that currently participates in the Chinese Super League under licence from the Chinese Football Association (CFA). The team is based in Jinan, Shandong and their home stadium is th ...

Squads

HK LNY Selection Team

:Manager: Kevin Bond：

Sagan Tosu

:Manager:

Lluís Carreras Lluís Carreras Ferrer (born 24 September 1972) is a Spanish retired footballer who played mostly as a left back but also as a defensive midfielder, currently a manager. He started his professional career with Barcelona, without much success, ...

Auckland City

:Manager:

Ramon Tribulietx Ramon Tribulietx Santolaya (born 20 September 1972) is a Spanish football coach and former player. Tribulietx holds the world record for the most trophies in continental competitions, winning seven straight OFC Champions League titles with Auc ...

Shandong Luneng Taishan F.C.

:Manager: Li Xiaopeng

Fixtures and results

''All times are local, HKT (

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

).''

Semi-finals

----

Third place play-off

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lunar New Year Cup, 2019

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

2018–19 in Hong Kong football February 2019 sports events in China