Dalian Zhixing v Shanghai Shenhua — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Super League · Sunday, 28 June 2026. Final score 1–4 (half-time 1–2). Rebuilt from the season as it stood that morning, our rating would have been 55% 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 goals55%45%Over
Over 3.5 goals36%64%no pick
Both teams to score58%42%Yes

The result model puts Dalian Zhixing at 35%, the draw at 29% and Shanghai Shenhua at 36%, from expected goals of 1.15 and 1.16.

How we got this number

The league sets the starting point. Super League has produced over 2.5 goals in 61% of its matches, and that is where a team with no record of its own would sit.

Each side's own record. Dalian Zhixing have 9 in 15 this season (4 of 7 at home), Shanghai Shenhua 10 in 15 (4 of 7 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 63%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 15 and 15 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 53% 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 59%.

Head to head. These sides have met 3 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 61%.

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 41%, from expected goals of 1.15 for Dalian Zhixing and 1.16 for Shanghai Shenhua. Folding in 30% of that view gives 55%.

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
Dalian Zhixing1560%33%53%
Shanghai Shenhua1567%53%73%

Head to head

7 Mar 26Shanghai Shenhua 5–3 Dalian ZhixingO2.5
26 Oct 25Shanghai Shenhua 2–2 Dalian ZhixingO2.5
17 May 25Dalian Zhixing 0–3 Shanghai ShenhuaO2.5

Things worth knowing

More: Dalian Zhixing 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.