We continue to fly through the Chinese Super League campaign as teams across the top tier attempt to push towards their ultimate goal - whether it be the title, survival or somewhere in between. Today, we’ll be taking a look at an important clash between Shanghai Shenhua and Chengdu Better City.
Shenhua Form GuideAfter a period of seemingly faltering, Shanghai Shenhua have been able to dust themselves off and pick themselves back up in the CSL. They’re still pretty far off the pace when it comes to the title race and what they ultimately want to achieve, but they’re definitely putting the right pieces in place. Now, it’s all about maintaining that and finding something that resembles stability.
Following a surprising 2-1 loss to Dalian, Shenhua bounced back with nice wins over Shenzhen and Wuhan. Unfortunately, though, their run ended at two, as they went away to Beijing and fell short in a disappointing 2-1 defeat.
Chengdu Form GuideChengdu Better City appeared to be well on their way towards establishing themselves as big players in the Chinese Super League - but in recent times, the wheels have somewhat begun to fall off. They’re not far off the pace of a lot of the teams ahead of them, but there’s a bit of fine-tuning that needs to be done in order for them to be taken seriously as a consistent threat.
Chengdu fought hard in a clash with Qingdao, only to come up short in a 3-2 defeat. They did well to overcome Shandong 1-0 in their next outing, but they fell back down to earth in two 1-0 defeats courtesy of Changchun and Wuhan.
Match PredictionThere’s no way of escaping the fact that Shanghai are the clear favourites heading into this one and while Chengdu are a strong side in their own right, their vulnerabilities at the back could easily come back to bite them. In terms of a prediction, we’re going to favour under 2.5 goals scored, with Shenhua likely edging it out.
