Perhaps a welcome break from league football as Nagoya Grampus & Sanfrecce Hiroshima face off to decide who makes it to next stage of the J-League Cup. All the pre-match information is available here!
Both teams should be fairly well rested for this game, as they have had some quiet days to prepare. Hopefully this will translate into lots of action on the pitch.
Nagoya Grampus form and stats
Nagoya Grampus participated in J-League Cup the last season, where they reached the quarter-finals and lost against Urawa Reds.19 points is a decent return from 9 J-League games here at Toyota Stadium for Nagoya Grampus. The data says 5 wins, 4 draws and 0 losses.
Nagoya Grampus's previous game was also played at home, ending 2-1 versus Avispa Fukuoka. The home side are looking to build on that result. The forward Mateus bettered all the other footballers in that match and was awarded a match rating of 8.31 out of 10. Mateus scored one goal, hit the woodwork once, hit three key passes, dribled past the opponent 2 of 4 times and had 30 successful passes (of 35 total).
A victory at home before that, as anticipated. The team were solid favourites against Veertien Mie and won 3-2.
Nagoya Grampus are certainly not overdoing their scoring at home in league matches, having created 13 goals in 9 games. From these home matches, Grampus have conceded only 7 goals.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima form and stats
Nothing but glory last season for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, as they won the J-League Cup.The story so far for the visiting team on their J-League travels is 4 wins, 1 draw and 4 defeats.
Sanfrecce Hiroshima play their second straight away game, having lost the previous one 0-1 to Kawasaki Frontale. Higashi got a match rating of 7.52 in that game, top player of the team. Higashi hit three key passes, dribled past the opponent 2 of 2 times and had 35 successful passes (of 42 total).
Before that game, the victory at home hosting FC Tokushima in the Emperor Cup (5-0).
The visiting Sanfrecce Hiroshima have scored more than one goal per away game in the league so far. The grand total is 11 goals from 9 games. As opposed to that, Sanfrecce have seen the ball go into their own net 10 times on the road.
Head 2 Head
The squads have met each other previously this season, with the match result Sanfrecce Hiroshima - Nagoya Grampus 1-2 logged in the official records. H2H stats regardless of arena (last ten matches): Nagoya Grampus four wins, one draw and Sanfrecce Hiroshima five victories. As for goals, three matches ended with three or more goals (over 2,5), seven games had two or less.
Top Goalscorers
  K. Junker 9 goals |   D. da Silva Vieira 6 goals | M. dos Santos Castro 4 goals |
Nagoya Grampus missing players
Sanfrecce Hiroshima missing players
| Nagoya Grampus | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | ||||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 25 | 13 | Played | P | 12 | 25 | ||
| 16 | 7 | Won | W | 6 | 14 | ||
| 6 | 5 | Drew | D | 1 | 2 | ||
| 3 | 1 | Lost | L | 5 | 9 | ||
| 38 | 19 | Scored | S | 17 | 40 | ||
| 20 | 12 | Conceded | C | 11 | 23 | ||
| 88% | 77% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 96% | ||
| 64% | 54% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 67% | 68% | ||
| 48% | 54% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 50% | 60% | ||
| 24% | 38% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 8% | 20% | ||
| 8% | 15% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 8% | 8% | ||
| 48% | 54% | BTTS | BTTS | 42% | 52% | ||
| 40% | 38% | Clean Sheets | C S | 33% | 36% | ||
| 24% | 31% | Failed to Score | F T | 25% | 16% | ||
| 4.7 | 5.2 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 7.3 | 6.8 | ||
| 4.7 | 4.3 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 4 | 3.6 | ||
| 1 | 0.8 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 1.5 | 1.2 | ||
| 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | ||
| 12.4 | 12.2 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 17.3 | 16 | ||
| 4.6 | 4.2 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 5.7 | 6.2 | ||
| 33% | 35% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 25% | 27% | ||
| 10.6 | 10 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 9 | 7.7 | ||
| 3.6 | 3.2 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 3.6 | 3 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Nagoya Grampus | 5 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 1 | 5 | 12 |
| 2 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 6 | 9 |
| 3 | Vissel Kobe | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 9 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | -6 | 6 |
| 4 | Yokohama | 5 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 6 | -5 | 3 |
| 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 | 17 | 11 | 3 | 3 | 37 | 20 | 8 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 21 | 7 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 16 | 13 | 17 | 36 |
| 2 | Nagoya Grampus | 17 | 10 | 5 | 2 | 25 | 14 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 13 | 7 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 12 | 7 | 11 | 35 |
| 3 | Vissel Kobe | 16 | 10 | 3 | 3 | 33 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 17 | 6 | 7 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 16 | 7 | 20 | 33 |
| 4 | Urawa Reds | 16 | 8 | 5 | 3 | 20 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 29 |
| 5 | Sanfrecce Hiroshima | 17 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 22 | 16 | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 11 | 6 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 11 | 10 | 6 | 29 |
| 6 | Cerezo Osaka | 17 | 9 | 2 | 6 | 23 | 19 | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 13 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 3 | 10 | 9 | 4 | 29 |
| 7 | Kashima Antlers | 17 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 23 | 16 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 11 | 10 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 6 | 7 | 28 |
| 8 | Consadole Sapporo | 17 | 7 | 5 | 5 | 38 | 32 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 16 | 14 | 9 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 22 | 18 | 6 | 26 |
| 9 | Kawasaki Frontale | 16 | 7 | 3 | 6 | 20 | 18 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 4 | 0 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 2 | 24 |
| 10 | Sagan Tosu | 17 | 6 | 5 | 6 | 19 | 21 | 9 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 10 | 13 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 9 | 8 | -2 | 23 |
| 11 | Avispa Fukuoka | 17 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 17 | 22 | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 10 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 14 | -5 | 20 |
| 12 | Tokyo | 17 | 5 | 4 | 8 | 22 | 28 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 14 | 10 | 10 | 1 | 3 | 6 | 8 | 18 | -6 | 19 |
| 13 | Albirex Niigata | 17 | 4 | 5 | 8 | 19 | 28 | 9 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 16 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 8 | 12 | -9 | 17 |
| 14 | Kyoto Sanga | 17 | 5 | 1 | 11 | 20 | 28 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 6 | 6 | 13 | 9 | 3 | 1 | 5 | 14 | 15 | -8 | 16 |
| 15 | Gamba Osaka | 17 | 4 | 4 | 9 | 21 | 33 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 11 | 11 | 9 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 22 | -12 | 16 |
| 16 | Yokohama | 17 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 35 | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 19 | 7 | 1 | 2 | 4 | 5 | 16 | -22 | 13 |
| 17 | Shonan Bellmare | 16 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 23 | 28 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 16 | 8 | 1 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 12 | -5 | 12 |
| 18 | Kashiwa Reysol | 17 | 2 | 6 | 9 | 16 | 28 | 9 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 10 | 17 | 8 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 11 | -12 | 12 |
