In this paper, a new approach of superconvergent estimate of bilinear finite element is established for two-dimensional time-fractional diffusion equation under fully-discrete scheme. The novelty of this approach is the combination technique of the interpolation and Ritz projection as well as the superclose estimate in H-1-norm between them, which avoids the difficulty of constructing a postprocessing operator for Ritz projection operator, and reduces the regularity requirement of the exact solution. At the same time, three numerical examples are carried out to verify the theoretical analysis. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.