Saturday, June 28

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Sports Mole previews Saturday's J1 League clash between Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Nagoya Grampus, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.

J1 League title hopefuls Sanfrecce Hiroshima will go in search of consecutive league wins when they entertain the challenge of Nagoya Grampus on Saturday evening.

The visitors, meanwhile, make the trip to the Hiroshima Big Arch aiming to get back to winning ways, having failed to win any of their most recent two outings.

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Match preview

Sanfrecce Hiroshima made a promising start to their league campaign with three wins and a draw from the opening four matches, but a 4-1 aggregate defeat to Lion City in the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League playoffs ushered in a rough patch.

Michael Skibbe's men were beaten in five of their next eight matches either side of consecutive wins against Kashima Antlers and Cerezo Osaka in early April which threatened to spark a revival at the time.

However, the Viola wasted no time getting themselves back on track with a five-game winning run before they were sent crashing back to earth by Kawasaki Frontale at the end of May leading up to consecutive cup involvements against Avispa Fukuoka and Brew Saga.

Sanfrecce navigated both assignments successfully and marked their return to league action with a 1-1 stalemate against Kashima Antlers but returned to winning ways last time out with a comprehensive 4-0 triumph over Yokohama FC.

Now up to 36 points from 20 matches this term, Hiroshima are currently third in the standings, five points off leaders Kashima Antlers, albeit with a game in hand as they look to end a decade-long wait for domestic supremacy.

Off the back of their joint-largest win of the season, Saturday's hosts will now set out to exact revenge on their visitors for a 2-1 defeat in the reverse fixture where goals from Mateus in both halves rendered Daiki Suga's late strike inconsequential.

In what is one of the poorest starts to a season in the club's history, Nagoya Grampus needed to wait seven games to record their first league victory and had managed just three wins after the first 13 rounds of matches.

A 3-0 triumph to kick off May was followed by three draws in a row before Kenta Hasegawa's men beat Urawa Reds, Albrex Nigata and Veroskronos Tsuno to stretch their run of games without defeat across all competitions to seven.

The Chubu-based outfit saw their unbeaten streak come to an end at the hands of Vissel Kobe courtesy of a narrow 2-1 loss on June 15, which preceded a 1-1 stalemate against Shimizu S-Pulse last time out.

Yuya Yamagishi's strike 26 minutes from time looked set to hand Nagoya Grampus all three points, but they were denied by Kanta Chiba's 88th-minute leveller, much to the frustration of head coach Hasegawa.

Now just five points above the drop zone, Nagoya's major goal in the coming weeks is to pull further clear of relegation dangers, and their first two games in July—both coming against teams currently below them—are perfect opportunities to do that.

For now, though, Saturday's visitors have their sights set on securing maximum points from this weekend's encounter, although their recent away record is hardly a cause for optimism with just one win from the most recent eight outings.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima J1 League form:

Sanfrecce Hiroshima form (all competitions):

Nagoya Grampus J1 League form:

Nagoya Grampus form (all competitions):

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Team News

Midfielder Tolgay Arslan is Sanfrecce's only guaranteed absentee for this one as he continues to battle with a knee problem he picked up in early March.

After his double against Yokohama, Kosuke Kinoshita is now off the mark for his new employers at the third time of asking and will be looking to come up trumps once again.

Twenty-six-year-old Yota Sato is ineligible to play any part for Nagoya Grampus here as he serves a one-match suspension due to an accumulation of yellow cards, while Soichiro Mori is unavailable through injury.

First-choice goalkeeper Daniel Schmidt continues his spell on the treatment table with a knee injury and is still a considerable way off returning to action.

This should see 19-year-old Alexandre Pisano retain his place in the visitors' starting lineup, fending off competition from veteran shotstopper Yohei Takeda.

Sanfrecce Hiroshima possible starting lineup:

Osako; Sasaki, Araki, Nakano; Nakamura, Kawabe, Higashi, Arai; Kato, Germain; Kinoshita

Nagoya Grampus possible starting lineup:

Pisano; Sato, Mikuni, Hara; Tokunoto, Shiihashi, Ingaki, Izumi; Morishima, Mateus, Nagai

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We say: Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1-0 Nagoya Grampus

 

Letting in just 15 goals so far, Sanfrecce Hiroshima currently boast the best defensive record in the division, and we can see them recording another clean sheet en route to a narrow win.

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

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