J-League: Top-drawer vs subpar, at least according to the table. Sanfrecce Hiroshima - Gamba Osaka. Home win or a surprise result?
- Gamba Osaka is in the worst form (0-2-4)
These teams have little in common geographically as Gamba Osaka have to travel 800 kilometers to reach their opponents. The trip home will be especially long if the match ends in defeat.
We should expect both teams to be fresh and ready for this match, as there is some time since both teams last played. Let's have a look at how the teams are doing!
Sanfrecce Hiroshima form and stats
Sanfrecce Hiroshima have collected 24 points from their J-League home games so far after 7-3-3.
A good away victory last time out for Sanfrecce, who won 3-2 against Kashiwa Reysol (placed 3rd). The victory against Kashiwa Reysol came after Fujii's winning goal. The Sanfrecce Hiroshima manager Skibbe was very happy afterwards with the decision to bring on that player in the 32nd minute. Midfield player Notsuda got a match rating of 7.93 in that game, the max score being 10. Notsuda signed up for two assists and hit two key passes.
The Sanfrecce Hiroshima fans would probably like to see some more goals scored at their own stadium in the league, the tally being 19 in 13 matches. Sanfrecce are not conceding a lot of goals here at EDION Stadium in the league, averaging less than one per game. The total is 10 from 13 matches.
Gamba Osaka form and stats
There's been little loot from Gamba Osaka's travels as they have only collected 9 points from 11 away games in the J-League. Gamba Osaka only have 2 wins to counter their 6 defeats and 3 draws.
This game can not go any worse than the previous one, the home loss versus Shimizu S-Pulse with 0-2 on the scoreboard. Fujiharu was the top performer of the team in that game with a match score of 7.34. The defender Fujiharu won 4 of 7 duels.
A draw for Gamba Osaka before that, at their own venue hosting Kyoto Sanga (1-1).We have done a similar check as we did with the hometeam, looking up recent matches where Gamba Osaka played away with similar odds. This revealed 4 games. The visitors overcame the odds to win 1 time, 0 were draws and the home team won as expected 3 times.
The attacking power of Gamba Osaka when travelling is not overwhelming with 7 goals scored from 11 league matches away. It's been trouble in front of goal recently, as only 0 of these goals has been scored in their last three away matches. 16 goals have been conceded by Gamba in these games. Gamba Osaka has visited these top teams three times, and 2 of 3 has ended with 2 goals or more!
Head 2 Head
Believe it or not, the last time Gamba Osaka kept a "clean sheet" was also facing this opposition, seven league matches ago (Gamba Osaka - Sanfrecce Hiroshima 2-0). Previous ten meetings with these squads: Sanfrecce Hiroshima won three, Gamba Osaka were winners in five and we saw two draws. five games with over 2,5 goals, five matches with under 2,5 goals.
Top Goalscorers
  T. Morishima 7 goals | M. Mitsuta 5 goals | Y. Kashiwa 3 goals |
Sanfrecce Hiroshima missing players
Gamba Osaka missing players
| Sanfrecce Hiroshima | Gamba Osaka | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 25 | 13 | 5 | Played | P | 3 | 11 | 24 |
| 11 | 7 | 3 | Won | W | 1 | 2 | 5 |
| 8 | 3 | 2 | Drew | D | 0 | 3 | 7 |
| 6 | 3 | 0 | Lost | L | 2 | 6 | 12 |
| 35 | 19 | 9 | Scored | S | 2 | 7 | 23 |
| 26 | 10 | 3 | Conceded | C | 7 | 16 | 34 |
| 92% | 92% | 100% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 100% | 96% |
| 80% | 77% | 80% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 67% | 64% | 75% |
| 48% | 46% | 40% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 67% | 27% | 38% |
| 20% | 8% | 20% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 67% | 18% | 25% |
| 4% | 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 0% | 4% |
| 52% | 46% | 60% | BTTS | BTTS | 33% | 45% | 54% |
| 36% | 46% | 40% | Clean Sheets | C S | 33% | 18% | 21% |
| 20% | 15% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 33% | 36% | 29% |
| 5.1 | 5.2 | 6 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 1.3 | 2.8 | 3.8 |
| 3.9 | 4.5 | 4.2 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 7 | 4.1 | 4.9 |
| 1 | 0.7 | 0.6 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2 | 0.6 | 1.1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 14.3 | 13.5 | 12.8 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 4.3 | 8.2 | 10.5 |
| 4.8 | 4.7 | 4.8 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 2 | 2.7 | 3.7 |
| 29% | 31% | 38% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 33% | 23% | 26% |
| 9.1 | 7.7 | 7.6 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 20.7 | 14.7 | 14.7 |
| 3.6 | 3.2 | 4 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 7 | 5 | 5.1 |
- Gamba Osaka have conceded at least twice as many goals as they have scored away.
- Gamba Osaka have the fewest scored goals (7) away in J-League
- Gamba Osaka have won significantly less corners away then at home.
- Gamba Osaka haven’t played a single 0-0 game away.
- Gamba Osaka is in the worst form (0-2-4)
- Sanfrecce Hiroshima have scored at least twice as many goals at home as Gamba Osaka have scored away.
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Yokohama F. Marinos | 24 | 14 | 6 | 4 | 51 | 27 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 25 | 6 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 26 | 21 | 24 | 48 |
| 2 | Kashima Antlers | 25 | 12 | 7 | 6 | 37 | 31 | 14 | 7 | 4 | 3 | 23 | 19 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 14 | 12 | 6 | 43 |
| 3 | Kashiwa Reysol | 25 | 13 | 3 | 9 | 33 | 26 | 13 | 6 | 1 | 6 | 17 | 16 | 12 | 7 | 2 | 3 | 16 | 10 | 7 | 42 |
| 4 | Cerezo Osaka | 24 | 11 | 8 | 5 | 39 | 26 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 20 | 14 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 19 | 12 | 13 | 41 |
| 5 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 25 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 35 | 26 | 13 | 7 | 3 | 3 | 19 | 10 | 12 | 4 | 5 | 3 | 16 | 16 | 9 | 41 |
| 6 | Kawasaki Frontale | 22 | 12 | 4 | 6 | 34 | 26 | 11 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 20 | 13 | 11 | 4 | 3 | 4 | 14 | 13 | 8 | 40 |
| 7 | Urawa Reds | 25 | 8 | 11 | 6 | 36 | 24 | 12 | 5 | 6 | 1 | 24 | 12 | 13 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 35 |
| 8 | Tokyo | 24 | 10 | 5 | 9 | 27 | 29 | 12 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 17 | 8 | 12 | 4 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 21 | -2 | 35 |
| 9 | Sagan Tosu | 24 | 7 | 12 | 5 | 34 | 27 | 13 | 5 | 6 | 2 | 19 | 8 | 11 | 2 | 6 | 3 | 15 | 19 | 7 | 33 |
| 10 | Nagoya Grampus | 24 | 7 | 9 | 8 | 21 | 24 | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 | 13 | 9 | 13 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 15 | -3 | 30 |
| 11 | Consadole Sapporo | 25 | 6 | 10 | 9 | 26 | 42 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 13 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 17 | 29 | -16 | 28 |
| 12 | Shimizu S-Pulse | 25 | 6 | 9 | 10 | 33 | 38 | 12 | 1 | 5 | 6 | 16 | 25 | 13 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 17 | 13 | -5 | 27 |
| 13 | Avispa Fukuoka | 24 | 6 | 9 | 9 | 17 | 22 | 11 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 9 | 6 | 13 | 3 | 3 | 7 | 8 | 16 | -5 | 27 |
| 14 | Kyoto Sanga | 24 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 23 | 28 | 12 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 15 | -5 | 26 |
| 15 | Shonan Bellmare | 24 | 6 | 7 | 11 | 19 | 30 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 9 | 20 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 10 | 10 | -11 | 25 |
| 16 | Vissel Kobe | 25 | 6 | 6 | 13 | 23 | 32 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 11 | 11 | 14 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 12 | 21 | -9 | 24 |
| 17 | Gamba Osaka | 24 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 23 | 34 | 13 | 3 | 4 | 6 | 16 | 18 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 7 | 16 | -11 | 22 |
| 18 | Júbilo Iwata | 25 | 5 | 7 | 13 | 23 | 42 | 13 | 4 | 3 | 6 | 14 | 21 | 12 | 1 | 4 | 7 | 9 | 21 | -19 | 22 |
