Qingdao Youth Island v Sichuan Jiuniu — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Super League · Saturday, 21 March 2026. Final score 1–0 (half-time 0–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 60% for over 2.5 goals. This match is older than our frozen ratings ledger, which keeps 30 days, so that figure is a reconstruction from pre-match data rather than a number we published at the time — a distinction worth making, because only the frozen ones prove what we actually said beforehand.

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Our ratings for this match

MarketYesNoOur call
Over 2.5 goals60%40%Over
Over 3.5 goals39%61%no pick
Both teams to score59%41%Yes

The result model puts Qingdao Youth Island at 64%, the draw at 21% and Sichuan Jiuniu at 14%, from expected goals of 2.02 and 0.84.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Super League has produced over 2.5 goals in 62% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Qingdao Youth Island have 1 in 2 this season, Sichuan Jiuniu 1 in 2 (1 of 1 away). Those records are pulled toward the league rate with the weight of about 24 matches — enough that two or three unusual games cannot swing a rating — giving 61% and 61%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 2 and 2 games played this season, last season's rates are still blended in and fade out entirely by game 40 — the point at which our testing showed they stop adding accuracy. A single season is part luck, so each club's record is first pulled toward the league average by 34 games' weight. That moves the two figures to 58% and 65%.

The mix. Weighted 40% home side, 40% away side and 20% league — the split that beat every alternative across 30,582 matches of testing — that gives 62%.

Head to head. These sides have met 4 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 75%. That nudges the number 5% of the way toward the head-to-head pattern — deliberately small, because fixtures change more than reputations do — landing on 62%.

Goal expectation. Separately a Poisson model built from attack and defence strength — using real expected-goals data where the league has it — puts this match at 55%, from expected goals of 2.02 for Qingdao Youth Island and 0.84 for Sichuan Jiuniu. Folding in 30% of that view gives 60%.

This breakdown is generated from the same inputs the rating uses, so it cannot describe a calculation we did not perform. The full model is set out in the methodology.

Season form

TeamGamesO2.5O3.5BTTS
Qingdao Youth Island250%50%50%
Sichuan Jiuniu250%50%50%

Head to head

28 Sept 25Sichuan Jiuniu 1–2 Qingdao Youth IslandO2.5
6 May 25Qingdao Youth Island 0–0 Sichuan JiuniuU2.5
22 Sept 24Qingdao Youth Island 3–2 Sichuan JiuniuO2.5
12 May 24Sichuan Jiuniu 1–2 Qingdao Youth IslandO2.5

More: Qingdao Youth Island season stats · Sichuan Jiuniu season stats · Super League table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.