Cerezo Osaka vs Tokyo FC 09/08/20

09 August 2020

Tokyo FC head to the Yanmar Stadium Nagai to take on Cerezo Osaka, looking to post back-to-back wins in their J1 League H2Hs for the first time in the club’s history.

A 1-0 home win over Urawa in midweek’s YBC Levain Cup stretched Cerezo’s unbeaten run in all competitions to five games (W3, D2), with three of their last four matches featuring a goalless first half and under 1.5 total goals. The ‘clean-sheet’ theme has highlighted Cerezo’s home fixtures so far this season. Indeed, none of their four J1 League home outings this campaign has seen both teams score (W2, D1, L1), with two of those three results (wins/losses) yielding the identical 2-0 scoreline. In turn, Miguel Ángel Lotina’s side have avoided defeat in seven of their previous top-flight home H2H meetings with Tokyo (W5, D2), keeping a blank sheet in four of the last five such clashes.

Meanwhile, the visitors take this trip on a run of three league games without a win (D2, L1). Curiously, Tokyo shipped the opening goal between the 30-minute mark and halftime in each of those matches but managed to reply before the HT whistle on two of those occasions. Away from home in J1 League, Kenta Hasegawa’s men have gone from three consecutive wins to back-to-back draws, with three of those fixtures seeing over 3.5 goals and both teams on the scoresheet. Notably, Tokyo are one of just two sides to smash a 10-goal barrier on the road so far despite slow starts. Indeed, only one of their ten away J1 League goals scored this term has come inside the opening 30 minutes of play.