In-form sides Avispa Fukuoka and Vissel Kobe will go head-to-head at the Best Denki Stadium on Saturday morning in round 22 of the 2025 J1 League campaign.

The hosts have won each of their last three outings heading into this weekend's affair, while the visitors will head to Fukuoka aiming to pick up a fifth straight win.

Match preview

From kicking off their domestic campaign with three straight defeats to going unbeaten across the subsequent nine matches and then failing to win any of the next seven games, Avispa Fukuoka have blown hot and cold all season long but look to be putting together a consistent run of positive results at the moment.

Myung Hwi Kim's men showed great powers of recovery to come from behind and claim a 3-2 triumph over Albirex Nigata last time out for their third straight win and a fourth in the last five matches either side of their 3-1 defeat to Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the YBC Levain Cup round of 16.

The Hornets are 10th in the standings with 29 points from their 21 matches, all but ruling out any chances of a title challenge, although they could launch a serious charge for the final AFC Champions League spot currently occupied by Sanfrecce.

Avispa will now set out to tie their longest winning streak of the campaign so far, but standing in their way is an opposing outfit who have been beaten in just one of the last six meetings between the teams since October 2022, winning the remaining five encounters.

However, it is worth noting that the solitary defeat did come in the most recent contest at the start of March when a Mitsuki Hidaka own goal five minutes from the interval proved enough to decide this season's reverse fixture.

Like Avispa, Vissel Kobe also had to take the long route to secure all three points from their last involvement, where they claimed a 2-1 triumph over Kawasaki Frontale at the Kawasaki Todoroki Stadium on Saturday.

That extended Ushi's active winning run to four matches since a dramatic 3-2 defeat to Shimizu S-Pulse on May 25, which remains their only defeat from the last seven matches across all competitions.

Takayuki Yoshida's men have not enjoyed the best of title defences, but their recent resurgence has firmly put them back in contention, with only five points separating them from leaders Kashima Antlers, who have played one game more.

However, Vissel Kobe will need to tighten up at the back to boost their chances of domestic supremacy, having failed to keep a clean sheet in each of their last nine outings, and it is not surprising that only four teams in the entire division have managed fewer shutouts.

Ahead of what is set to be a crunch encounter against third-place Sanfrecce Hiroshima next week, Saturday's visitors will not want to lose any more ground in their quest to claim title number three on the bounce.

Avispa Fukuoka J1 League form:

Avispa Fukuoka form (all competitions):

Vissel Kobe J1 League form:

Vissel Kobe form (all competitions):

Team News

Avispa Fukuoka duo Jurato Ikeda and Itsuki Oda are both battling with knee injuries at the moment, ruling them out of contention to play any part in Saturday's affair.

Iran international Shahab Zahebi rounds off the list of absentees for the hosts as he has been unavailable since the middle of May due to an injury problem.

Yoshinori Muto is yet to recuperate from a back issue and will not feature this weekend, while Jean Patric is a huge doubt after lasting just 33 minutes against Kawasaki last time out.

Kento Hamasaki and Niina Tominaga are both facing expected spells out of action, although the former is relatively closer to making a comeback.

Twenty-five-year-old Taisei Miyashiro has found the back of the net five times in his last four starts for the away side and is definitely one to keep an eye on here.

Avispa Fukuoka possible starting lineup:

Obata; Ando, Tashiro, Kamijima; Hashimoto, Matsuoka, Akino, Fujimoto; Konno, Kitajima, Usui

Vissel Kobe possible starting lineup:

Maekawa; Nagato, Thuler, Yamakawa, Sakai; Ogihara, Miyashiro, Ideguchi; Hirose, Sasaki, Erik

We say: Avispa Fukuoka 1-2 Vissel Kobe

The teams are closely matched in terms of defensive solidity this term, but the away side have been significantly better at the top end.

We are backing them to claim all three points, albeit by only a narrow margin.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Adepoju Marvellous

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