Yunnan Yukun v Shanghai Shenhua — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Super League · Saturday, 16 May 2026. Final score 1–0 (half-time 0–0). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 64% 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 goals64%36%Over
Over 3.5 goals45%55%no pick
Both teams to score66%34%Yes

The result model puts Yunnan Yukun at 29%, the draw at 24% and Shanghai Shenhua at 48%, from expected goals of 1.37 and 1.83.

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. Yunnan Yukun have 11 in 11 this season (5 of 5 at home), Shanghai Shenhua 7 in 11 (3 of 5 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 74% and 62%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 11 and 11 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 62% 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 63%.

Head to head. These sides have met 2 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 100%. 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 65%.

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 62%, from expected goals of 1.37 for Yunnan Yukun and 1.83 for Shanghai Shenhua. Folding in 30% of that view gives 64%.

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
Yunnan Yukun11100%45%82%
Shanghai Shenhua1164%55%73%

Head to head

2 Aug 25Yunnan Yukun 4–4 Shanghai ShenhuaO2.5
2 Apr 25Shanghai Shenhua 3–1 Yunnan YukunO2.5

More: Yunnan Yukun season stats · Shanghai Shenhua season stats · Super League table and form. Ratings are calibrated probabilities, not tips — a 60% call is expected to miss two times in five.