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 Shandong Luneng and Meizhou Kejia.
Shandong Form GuideShandong Luneng have looked really, really strong as of late and that transformation is something to take real pride in. Of course, they need to be able to sustain it, but a top six place is obviously something to build on. If they can start to kill teams off, they’re really going to get somewhere, but there’s a fear that they’ve peaked too early, with many wanting them to start turning draws into wins.
Shandong drew with Shanghai at the start of July before rattling off nice wins over Henan and Shenhua in a four-day window. They proceeded to draw with Nantong and lose to Hangzhou, before a dominant and decisive 3-0 triumph over Beijing.
Meizhou Form GuideMeizhou Kejia’s form has left a lot to be desired recently and with just five wins to their name so far this season, you have to wonder if critics were right to write them off before the campaign had even begun. They have some young talent that could start to come through the floodgates in the months ahead, but it’s going to take a lot of hard work in training, and we aren’t sure if they’ve got the stomach for it.
After only managing a point away to Nantong, Meizhou picked up two nice wins over Chengdu and Beijing. They did go on to lose consecutive games to Shenhua and Wuhan, but in their most recent outing, they did wel to defeat Dalian - even though it was a bit tighter than they would’ve liked.
Match PredictionShandong and Meizhou are both exciting teams to watch when they’re on their best form, and that kind of determination in the final third should bode well for them entering a collision like this. For the casual, this has the potential to be a really fun one, with our prediction being over 2.5 goals scored.
