Chinese Super League side Beijing Guoan lost to Jingchuan Wenhui, an amateur team playing in the country's fourth-tier league and sponsored by a stationery store in Jingchuan county, Gansu Province in the CFA Cup last week. 

With the score level at 2-2 after 90 minutes, Jingchuan Wenhui, three divisions below their opponents, won the penalty shootout and advanced to the last 16. 

The unexpected result shocked football fans across the country, leading to the news quickly becoming a trending topic viewed by 9 million netizens on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo. While congratulating the team, many said they probably never would have heard of the team without the famous win.  

From a county with only 340,000 people, Jingchuan Wenhui was officially established a little more than a year ago. It ­currently has 152 registered players with an ­average age of 32 years old, according to news site thepaper.cn. Among the around 50 ­local players from Jingchuan, many are just part-timers who work in other professions such as PE teachers, civil servants and also company workers. 

"A big part of the reason may be that Guoan didn't hear about us and didn't take us seriously," Yao Jun, lead player for Jingchuan Wenhui, told the media.

A day after the competition, Yao told the media that all the players on the team were excited when they learned they would be competing against the 2009 Chinese top-flight champions. They started to make some "targeted" plans to win the match.

"I'm a fan of Beijing Guoan, but I didn't feel too bad about this result. The major reason is that if you are 100 percent good but only put in 10 percent effort, you will naturally lose to someone who tried their best," Yao Yiwei, a football insider, told the Global Times. 

"No matter how much more experienced Guoan is compared to the Gansu team, it still has its own weaknesses. For example, the entire team is very dependent on their 'star' force and also have rather predictable tactics. So if Jing­chuan really spent time analyzing Guoan, there was always the possibility they would win," Shan Peng, a football insider, told the Global Times. 

"The weak overpowering the strong is also part of the charm of the beautiful game," Wang Dazhuang, a football insider, told the Global Times. 

"Fans can no longer ignore the name Jingchuan Wenhui," the Chinese Football Association said in an article on its official website published on Friday. 

The association also sent out a congratulation letter, describing Jingchuan Wenhui as an "important name card" for promoting the image of the county, Pingliang city and the province.