It's the second attempt for points this campaign as Sporting Cristal and Melgar cross swords at Estadio Alberto Gallardo.
It's quite the trip for Melgar when visiting Sporting Cristal as the cities are 1000 kilometers apart.
Both sides have had time to rest since their last competitive action. Let's look for an in-your-face match!
Sporting Cristal form and stats
Last season, Sporting Cristal's league stats were 10 wins, 4 draws and 3 losses, providing 2nd spot in the Primera Division. During these 17 matches they scored 39 goals and let in 23. Playing as the home side in the last season Sporting Cristal managed 3-3-2 (win-draw-lost) with 15 goals and 11 conceded.
Stress levels are on the rise for Sporting Cristal's attacking players as they have now played 270 minutes without scoring in a league game. Avila was their last goal scorer.
Cristal are hoping to put things right at home after a defeat in their previous match, the score 0-1 away versus Sport Huancayo. Merlo, defender, was given a rating of 7.45/10 in that game, top of the team. Merlo won 3 of 3 duels.
Preceding that game was the home draw versus Alianza Lima that ended 0-0.This is expected to be a close game, with Sporting Cristal perhaps considered small favourites due to their home advantage. Looking back at earlier matches similar to this one (expected to be close with Sporting Cristal as a small favourite), we find four games. Sporting Cristal has won two of these, drawn one and lost one.
Melgar form and stats
Let's have a look at how Melgar performed last season in the Primera Division: They landed a 4th position in the league table after playing out 9 victories, 4 draws and 4 defeats. In total they scored 34 and conceded 15 goals in these matches. The numbers for away games only are: Won 6 - drew 1 and lost 1 with 19/7 goals scored/conceded.
Melgar are travelling after their nice 1-0 home win in the fixture against Carlos Manucci (placed 17th). Midfielder Guedes was the best performer of that match, with a rating of 8.04. Guedes served one assist and hit four key passes.
Prior to that result Melgar won their away game at Deportivo Municipal. The scoreline was 3-1.As mentioned above, this is an open game with no clear favourite. We have found eleven similar matches played by Melgar in our archives, and the results are: three wins for Melgar, three draws and five defeats.
Head 2 Head
Sporting Cristal-Melgar H2H statistics last ten meetings regardless of arena: Sporting Cristal four wins, Melgar five wins, one draw. five of these ten matches had three or more goals (over 2,5). The matches between these sides have sometimes been hostile, having seen 6 sending-offs from the last ten duels.Sporting Cristal missing players
Melgar missing players
| Sporting Cristal | Melgar | ||||||
| Total | Home | vs | Statistics | Stat | vs | Away | Total |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Played | P | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Won | W | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Drew | D | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Lost | L | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Scored | S | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | Conceded | C | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | BTTS | BTTS | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Clean Sheets | C S | 0% | 0% | 100% |
| 100% | 0% | 0% | Failed to Score | F T | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| 5 | 0 | 0 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 0 | 0 | 0 | Red cards | R C | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | 0 | 0 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 0 | 0 | 17 |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 0 | 0 | 6 |
| 0% | 0% | 0% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 0% | 0% | 17% |
| 14 | 0 | 0 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| 4 | 0 | 0 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Sporting Cristal | Last season | Melgar | |||||
| Total | Home | Statistics | Stat | Away | Total | ||
| 29 | 14 | Played | P | 12 | 26 | ||
| 19 | 8 | Won | W | 6 | 11 | ||
| 5 | 4 | Drew | D | 3 | 7 | ||
| 5 | 2 | Lost | L | 3 | 8 | ||
| 59 | 25 | Scored | S | 23 | 45 | ||
| 30 | 13 | Conceded | C | 14 | 27 | ||
| 97% | 93% | Over 0.5 | O 0.5 | 100% | 96% | ||
| 76% | 71% | Over 1.5 | O 1.5 | 83% | 77% | ||
| 59% | 43% | Over 2.5 | O 2.5 | 58% | 54% | ||
| 34% | 36% | Over 3.5 | O 3.5 | 33% | 27% | ||
| 17% | 14% | Over 4.5 | O 4.5 | 17% | 12% | ||
| 59% | 57% | BTTS | BTTS | 67% | 50% | ||
| 31% | 36% | Clean Sheets | C S | 25% | 35% | ||
| 14% | 14% | Failed to Score | F T | 8% | 19% | ||
| 6.5 | 7.2 | Corners for (avg) | C F | 5.9 | 6.2 | ||
| 3.2 | 2.9 | Corners against (avg) | C A | 3.9 | 3.6 | ||
| 2.2 | 2.5 | Yellow cards (avg) | Y C | 2.4 | 2.2 | ||
| 5 | 3 | Red cards | R C | 2 | 4 | ||
| 12 | 12.2 | Shots (avg) | S ( | 12.2 | 11.5 | ||
| 5.2 | 5 | Shots on Target (avg) | S O | 5.2 | 4.5 | ||
| 40% | 36% | Goal Efficiency | G E | 39% | 39% | ||
| 8.9 | 7.9 | Shots against (avg) | S A | 7 | 8.1 | ||
| 3.2 | 2.8 | Shots on Target against (avg) | S O | 3.2 | 3.2 | ||
| Total | Home | Away | |||||||||||||||||||
| # | Team | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | MP | W | D | L | F | A | +/- | P |
| 1 | Universitario | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 3 |
| 2 | Deportivo Municipal | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 3 | UTC Cajamarca | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | Melgar | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 5 | Sport Huancayo | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Alianza Lima | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | Atlético Grau | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | ADT | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 9 | Carlos Stein | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 10 | Cesar Vallejo | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 11 | Cienciano | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | Alianza Atletico | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | Deportivo Binacional | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 14 | Universidad San Martin | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Ayacucho | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | -1 | 0 |
| 16 | Sport Boys | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | -1 | 0 |
| 17 | Carlos Manucci | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 18 | Sporting Cristal | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | -1 | 0 |
| 19 | Academia Cantolao | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -3 | 0 |
