Yunnan Yukun v Dalian Zhixing — prediction, stats and goal analysis

Super League · Saturday, 15 August 2026. Final score 3–1 (half-time 0–1). 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 goals41%59%no pick
Both teams to score65%35%Yes

The result model puts Yunnan Yukun at 52%, the draw at 23% and Dalian Zhixing at 25%, from expected goals of 1.88 and 1.25.

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. Yunnan Yukun have 18 in 22 this season (9 of 11 at home), Dalian Zhixing 13 in 21 (6 of 10 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 71% and 61%.

Last season still counts, briefly. With 22 and 21 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 65% and 55%.

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 60%.

Head to head. These sides have met 3 times in three years, producing over 2.5 goals in 67%. 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 60%.

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 60%, from expected goals of 1.88 for Yunnan Yukun and 1.25 for Dalian Zhixing. 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
Yunnan Yukun2282%50%77%
Dalian Zhixing2162%43%62%

Head to head

26 Apr 26Dalian Zhixing 1–3 Yunnan YukunO2.5
19 Sept 25Yunnan Yukun 1–1 Dalian ZhixingU2.5
1 May 25Dalian Zhixing 3–2 Yunnan YukunO2.5

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