Perhaps a welcome break from league football as Kyoto Sanga & Gamba Osaka face off to decide who makes it to next stage of the J-League Cup. All the pre-match information is available here!
It’s busy days for these teams as both were in action only a few days ago. There’s no rest for the wicked, or in this case; no rest for Kyoto Sanga and Gamba Osaka.
Kyoto Sanga form and stats
Last season, Kyoto Sanga's J-League Cup journey ended in the play-offs against Nagoya Grampus.Only two J-League home games for Kyoto Sanga so far, yet both highs and lows with 1 win, 0 draws and 1 defeat.
Kyoto's last game was hosting Tokyo and winning 2-0. Defender Shirai got the top score of the team in the match with a rating of 8.02/10. Shirai won 7 of 9 duels.
Heartbreak before that as Kyoto Sanga lost 0-1 at Nagoya Grampus's place.This is expected to be a close game, with Kyoto Sanga perhaps considered small favourites due to their home advantage. Looking back at earlier matches similar to this one (expected to be close with Kyoto Sanga as a small favourite), we find 7 games. Kyoto Sanga has won 3 of these, drawn 3 and lost 1.
There will be little rest for Kyoto after this match as they are travelling to Shonan Bellmare for a J-League game in only four days.
Early season league goal statistics from Kyoto Sanga's 2 home games: {2 goals}, 2 conceded.
Gamba Osaka form and stats
Gamba Osaka's mission in J-League Cup last season failed in the group stage.Still no away game victory in the J-League for Gamba Osaka with 1 draw and 1 loss from their first 2 attempts.
Gamba lost away at Vissel Kobe (0-4) in their previous game and are perhaps starting to feel homesick. Gamba Osaka lost the plot completely in their previous game, as mentioned above. They need to recover quickly from that 0-4 beating and focus on this one. Midfield player Usami was the top player of the team with a match rating of 7.02/10. Usami hit the woodwork once, dribled past the opponent 1 of 2 times and had 27 successful passes (of 32 total).
Preceding that match was the 1-1 draw at home vs Sagan Tosu.As mentioned above, this is an open game with no clear favourite. We have found 14 similar matches played by Gamba Osaka in our archives, and the results are: 4 wins for Gamba, 7 draws and 3 defeats.
The visitors are returning home after this fixture, hosting Sanfrecce Hiroshima in just four days.
{2 goals} so far away for Gamba Osaka, while their defence has allowed the opposition to score 6. All from 2 league matches away.
Head 2 Head
Gamba Osaka have avoided a loss in the last 10 games (6-4-0) facing Kyoto Sanga.Top Goalscorers
  S. Kawasaki 1 goals | A. Aguiar Oliveira 1 goals |   T. Usami 1 goals |
Kyoto Sanga missing players
Gamba Osaka missing players
| Kyoto Sanga | Gamba Osaka | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 14 | Played | P | 13 | 25 | ||
| 7 | 4 | Won | W | 3 | 7 | ||
| 8 | 5 | Drew | D | 2 | 7 | ||
| 10 | 5 | Lost | L | 8 | 11 | ||
| 23 | 15 | Scored | S | 12 | 25 | ||
| 27 | 15 | Conceded | C | 27 | 39 | ||
| 92% | 93% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 92% | 88% | ||
| 68% | 86% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 69% | 76% | ||
| 32% | 36% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 46% | 40% | ||
| 8% | 0% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 38% | 24% | ||
| 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 15% | 8% | ||
| 52% | 64% | BTTS | BTTS | 31% | 40% | ||
| 24% | 21% | Clean Sheets | C S | 31% | 32% | ||
| 32% | 21% | Failed to Score | F T | 46% | 40% | ||
| 4.6 | 4.2 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 2.5 | 3.4 | ||
| 5.9 | 6.1 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 5.2 | 5.1 | ||
| 1.9 | 1.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.5 | ||
| 1 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 1 | 1 | ||
| 11.2 | 11.3 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 8 | 10.5 | ||
| 3.5 | 3.4 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 2.8 | 3.5 | ||
| 26% | 32% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 32% | 27% | ||
| 12.9 | 12.2 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 17.7 | 15.5 | ||
| 4.6 | 4.6 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 7.2 | 5.8 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Vissel Kobe | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 9 |
| 2 | Yokohama F. Marinos | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 |
| 3 | Kashima Antlers | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 6 |
| 4 | Avispa Fukuoka | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 5 | Nagoya Grampus | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 6 | Shonan Bellmare | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 6 | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| 7 | Albirex Niigata | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 8 | Kawasaki Frontale | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 9 | Tokyo | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 4 |
| 10 | Sagan Tosu | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -3 | 4 |
| 11 | Kyoto Sanga | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 3 |
| 12 | Urawa Reds | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | -3 | 3 |
| 13 | Kashiwa Reysol | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 2 |
| 14 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | -1 | 2 |
| 15 | Consadole Sapporo | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -2 | 2 |
| 16 | Gamba Osaka | 3 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 6 | -4 | 2 |
| 17 | Cerezo Osaka | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | -2 | 1 |
| 18 | Yokohama | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | -3 | 1 |
