Hangzhou Linping Wuyue (home)
- The hosts, currently sitting mid-to-lower table in the South section of China League Two, have shown plenty of defensive grit in recent weeks, which will be essential against their CSL visitors.
- Hangzhou's manager Lei Xu has made his name in China with his ability to get teams to keep it tight at the back and frustrate the opponents, and that's how this will go if they are to progress.
- Their two FA Cup 2026 victories in the previous rounds have been 1-0 successes and they have kept three shut outs in their last five in all competitions.
Dalian Young Boy FC (away)
- In their opening 15 Super League matches, Dalian Young Boy FC have claimed 22 points to sit in third place and are certainly the stronger and more experienced side for this clash, in which an away win would be a routine outcome while a Hangzhou win would send shockwaves through the Chinese domestic scene and would be remembered for years to come.
- Dalian are managed by Li Guoxu, a pragmatic tactician who has set up his team to be solid in defense and ruthless on the break.
- Their pressing game is high intensity and they seek to recover the ball in the attacking half, allowing Nicolae Stanciu to play his creative role and orchestrate chances for Cephas Malele - the club's top goalscorer with six CSL goals - to get on the end of.
Head-to-Head
The two teams have never previously met in a senior match .
Hangzhou
Gao Tianyu provides the pace and width on the flank that can stretch the opposition defence on either side while Wu Yuhang is their main scoring threat with four goals in domestic competitions in 2026 .
Dalian
- Frank Acheampong does similar things for Dalian, but he adds a directness and pace that can open up games in an instant.
- Acheampong is particularly dangerous on the counterattack.
Betting Insights
- Backing Dalian to win at 1.57 does not look a bad play at all for this game, but we're not going to back the visitors in that market for several reasons.
- First and foremost, Dalian have conceded at least one goal in four of their last five games and they will be playing away from home against a solid and compact Hangzhou side.
- Secondly, the odds for the 'Over 2.5 goals' bet is high at 1.72, suggesting there's a good chance that we'll see more than two goals in this game.
- The 'Both Teams to Score - No' odds look appealing at 1.91 as we expect at least one of these two teams to have enough defensive discipline to keep a clean sheet, but Hangzhou's defensive form suggests at least one of them will also have the resilience to maintain a low-score outcome.
Prediction
We expect at least one of these two teams to have enough defensive discipline to keep a clean sheet.
