Kashiwa Reysol vs Vissel Kobe

Kashiwa Reysol and Vissel Kobe are set to trade tackles at the Hitachi Kashiwa Stadium in an exciting J1 League fixture.

Kashiwa take the field in the midst of a rough patch, having failed to win any of their last seven matches in all competitions (D3, L4), six of which saw them score under 1.5 goals. Since picking up a 5-1 home victory against Tokushima in late April, the hosts have drawn a blank in three of their four subsequent J1 League outings. Of all the sides sitting outside the drop zone at the moment, only Shimizu S-Pulse (11) have netted fewer league goals than Kashiwa (13) so far this season. Encouragingly, though, a clear majority (69.23%) of Kashiwa’s J1 League strikes this term arrived at home (9/13). Worryingly, Nelsinho Baptista’s men have failed to keep a clean sheet in five of their six home league fixtures this season.

Meanwhile, the visitors are enduring a torrid time of their own as they head into proceedings having won just once in their last seven J1 League games (D4, L2). Additionally, a lack of firepower in the front third has seen Vissel fail to score in two of their last three league outings, with just one top-half-of-the-table team netting fewer goals than Kobe (19) thus far. Following back-to-back away stalemates, Atsuhiro Miura’s men have now lost twice in a row on the road, succumbing to consecutive 2-0 defeats to Yokohama Marinos and Urawa Reds, respectively. Furthermore, Kobe have lost each of their last eight top-flight trips to Kashiwa, conceding an alarming average of 2.25 goals per match in the process.