Dalian Yingbo Wins Chinese Super League After Chengdu’s Late Collapse

Chengdu Rongcheng needed one point on the final day to claim its first Chinese Super League title. Instead, John Aloisi’s team lost 3-2 to Shandong Taishan, while Dalian Yingbo beat Tianjin Jinmen Tiger 3-1 to complete a five-match winning run and take the championship.

Both clubs finished with 52 points. Chengdu had the better goal difference, +15 to Dalian’s +5, but Dalian won the title on its superior head-to-head record after beating Chengdu twice during the season. The result capped a striking reversal: Chengdu had led by 14 points with five rounds left, then collected just one point from its final five matches.

Two matches, one shifting title race

The decisive fixtures began at the same time, and the lead changed hands as events unfolded across both grounds. Dalian scored after four minutes and 26 seconds in snowy, near-freezing conditions, with much of the pitch covered before kickoff. Chengdu, meanwhile, fell 2-0 behind within 23 minutes.

Aloisi’s side pulled one back before the break. When Tianjin equalised from the penalty spot in the 50th minute, Chengdu moved back into position to win the title despite trailing in its own match. Shandong’s third goal in the 63rd minute tilted the race away again, but Dalian’s second, from a corner seven minutes later, gave the visitors control.

Chengdu made it 3-2 in the 79th minute. Another goal would have secured the championship regardless of Dalian’s result, but it never came. Dalian scored a third in stoppage time, sealing the win and the club’s first Chinese Super League title.

Aloisi faces the collapse

The defeat followed a run of four straight losses after Chengdu’s 0-0 draw with Henan. Tianjin, Shanghai Port, Dalian and Shandong all beat Aloisi’s team. Dalian won each of its final five games, turning the standings around in the closing weeks.

Aloisi, the former Western United manager who led the club to the 2022 A-League Men championship, took charge of Chengdu at the start of 2026. It was his first overseas head-coaching job. After the final whistle, he apologised to supporters and said the team had let a major opportunity slip away.

The following remarks were translated from a Chinese-language account published by Dongqiudi.

“We are indeed very disappointed not to have won the championship. We are in a very despairing state. There is nothing else to say,” Aloisi said. “I want to say sorry to everyone. We certainly know that our fans have travelled a long way to fight alongside us and support us.”

He added: “Right now, my only feeling is one of great dejection and disappointment, because we could see the trophy right in front of us, but could not get it.”

Asked whether he would resign, Aloisi declined to discuss his future. “Now is not the time to talk about this,” he said, adding that the club and team needed to review where they had fallen short in their last five matches and address those problems.

Rudan’s first Chinese league title

The result also brought a landmark for Mark Rudan, an assistant on Dalian’s coaching staff since April and a former A-League Men head coach. He had previously spent time in China as a player. The championship is his first in the Chinese Super League.

Asian football journalist John Duerden noted that Chengdu had lost top spot for the first time all season. He described a 14-point lead with five games remaining as a collapse “of historic proportions” and called the finish one of the most dramatic stories in recent Asian football.

For Chengdu, the immediate task is the review Aloisi described. After leading for most of the season, the final five matches will define the questions the club needs to answer before its next campaign.