Yunnan Yunkun Hold Dalian Zhixing at Home in Super League Clash
Yunnan Yunkun secured a 3-1 victory over Dalian Zhixing at the Yuxi Playto Sport Centre on Friday afternoon in the Super League's regular season round 23. The hosts took an early lead through F. Acheampong's thirteenth-minute strike and never looked back after a pivotal moment in the first half. Dalian arrived in second place with forty points, two ahead of fourth-placed Yunnan, but the gap widened to four after this result.
Acheampong opened the scoring with a composed finish that gave the home side early confidence. By then the visitors were already struggling to find their rhythm, their possession languishing at twenty-seven per cent. The visitors' goalkeeper would make six saves throughout the match, but it was not enough to stem the flow of chances. Yunnan created nine big chances compared to Dalian's single opportunity.
The match turned on the thirty-sixth minute when W. Mao received his second yellow card and was sent off. To be fair, Mao had picked up his first booking twenty minutes earlier, but the timing proved devastating for the visitors. He was one of three players to receive yellow cards for Dalian, while Yunnan's discipline was tighter with only one booking. The substitution of C. Malele at the twenty-eighth minute had not shifted the balance, and neither did Luo Jing's arrival at the forty-first minute.
Yunnan saw a goal cancelled by VAR through Caio Vinicius in the fifty-fourth minute, which must have been frustrating after all their attacking pressure. The hosts dominated possession at seventy-three per cent and completed five hundred and nineteen passes compared to Dalian's one hundred and eighty-seven. Cleber pulled one back for the visitors in the seventy-second minute, but the deficit was already too large for Dalian to overcome.
O. Taty Maritu added two goals in the closing stages, opening the scoring in the eighty-first minute and sealing the result in stoppage time. The home side made several changes in the second half, bringing on J. Saeter and P. Zhu at the interval, then rotating Yang Zihao and Abdusalam Bunyamin at the fifty-second mark. Dalian attempted to respond with substitutions of Feng Boxuan and F. Acheampong, but the damage had been done.
Yunnan's attacking output was impressive, with twenty-three shots inside the penalty area and nine on target. They completed four hundred and fifty-eight passes at high accuracy, while Dalian managed only one hundred and fifteen successful passes. The visitors created just four key passes compared to Yunnan's twenty-two, and their attempts to build play were repeatedly frustrated. Yunnan won eighteen aerial duels and completed fifteen of their thirty-one crosses.
The result means Dalian can no longer afford another slip if they are to maintain their position at the top of the table. Yunnan held on grimly to extend their lead over the visitors and moved closer to the leaders. The hosts' recent form had been mixed, with draws against Chengdu Rongcheng and Shanghai SIPG, but this performance showed greater consistency. The table goes out of the window in these games, but the points difference now stands at four.