While the majority of top leagues across Europe have come to an end, there are plenty of others across the globe that are continuing to thrive - including the Chinese Super League. There’s so much to get excited about in China’s top tier and in the weeks and months ahead, there’s still a lot of football to be played. Today, we’ll be taking a look at the upcoming clash between Changchun Yatai and Henan FC.
Changchun Form GuideChangchun were comfortably in the bottom half of the table last season and while mid-table isn’t the worst place in the world to be, it feels like deep down, there’s a split behind the scenes regarding what they want from the future. On the one hand, simply avoiding relegation could be seen as a positive. On the other, we’d argue they have the potential for a whole lot more.
Changchun are down in 11th place in the league after 13 games. In that time, they’ve picked up three wins alongside three draws and seven defeats - and while it may not seem like the best news, they can take pride from the fact that many of their losses were quite narrow.
Henan Form GuideThe issue for Henan last season was consistency, and we don’t think that’s unfair to say. They finished down in 10th place and while that’s solid enough, there were times where it seemed inevitable that they’d finish in the top half - or, alternatively, slip into the relegation scrap. They need to carve out an identity for themselves if they want to make some noise this time around.
Across their last five games, Henan have fallen back into ‘dropping like a stone’ mode. They’ve lost five on the bounce and up to this point in the season, they’ve only got two wins to their name. Thankfully for them, the sides below them aren’t showing much promise either.
Match PredictionBoth of these sides are only really starting to find their feet in the league and at this moment in time, it doesn’t feel like they’ve got that killer instinct necessary to really kick on and put forward a big performance. Therefore, we’re going to shoot for a prediction of under 2.5 goals scored.
