Delightful dogfight as daring Nagoya Grampus duels with determined Vegalta Sendai

There’s little time for restitution or working hard at the training pitch these days, with both teams having played their last game less than four days ago.

Nagoya Grampus form and stats

Nagoya Grampus, who have the most clean sheets (13) in J-League, have played 9 J-League games at their own stadium so far this season, resulting in 5-1-3 (wins-draws-losses).

Grampus are confident in defense, having played 184 minutes without conceding a goal in the league.

Grampus manager M. Ficcadenti and his team return home after a 0-0 draw away versus Tokushima Vortis (placed 13th) in the J-League. Midfielder Mateus was the best player on the team with a rating of 7.63 (out of ten) in that game. Mateus hit two key passes and dribled passed the opponent 2 of 4 times.

Before that match, a win away at Shimizu S-Pulse.

The hosts are modest favourites in this match, with the bookmakers estimating the chance of a home win at about 50% +- five percent. It's interesting to look at how Nagoya Grampus have performed under similar circumstances, so here are some numbers: When modest favourites like this (we found eleven games) they have won six times, drawn three and lost two.

There's a new game coming up fairly quickly for Grampus as they are travelling to their away game against Urawa Reds in the J-League. That match is four days after this one.

Grampus are certainly not overdoing their scoring at home in league matches, having created 9 goals in 9 games. It's been trouble in front of goal recently, as only 1 of these goals has been scored in their last three home matches. Grampus have only conceded 8 from their league home games. For more goal stats, check the Statistics tab above. It's worth mentioning that 6 of these goals has been conceded in their last 3 home matches.

Vegalta Sendai form and stats

The hunting on away grounds haven’t been very fruitful for Vegalta Sendai so far with only 3 points returning home. The records show 0-3-6 (win-draw-lose).

Vegalta are travelling after their nice 2-1 home win in the J-League against Oita Trinita (placed 18th). Attacker Takuma Nishimura got a player rating of 7.44 in the game. "Man of the match" Nishimura scored one goal, hit one key pass and dribled passed the opponent 1 of 2 times. World class coaching! That was the thoughts of manager M. Teguramori when Chihiro Kato scored the winning goal after coming on as a substitute in the 65th minute.

A home win before that, celebrating 3-0 vs Sanfrecce Hiroshima.

We have checked recent matches where Vegalta have had similar odds to win. Win-draw-lose statistics from those 16 games were two victories, two draws and twelve defeats.

The visitors are returning home after this fixture, hosting Cerezo Osaka in just four days.

The attacking power of Vegalta when travelling is not overwhelming with 8 goals scored from 9 league matches away. For Vegalta, more than two goals on average per game end up in their own net.

Head 2 Head

Head-to-head totals (for the last ten meetings): Grampus won five games, one match ended with a draw and Vegalta Sendai has four wins. Over 2,5 goals / under 2,5 goals: five / five

Top Goalscorers

M. dos Santos Castro 6 goals

S. Inagaki 4 goals

R. Yamasaki 3 goals

Nagoya Grampus missing players

Vegalta Sendai missing players