Oita vs Gamba Osaka 05/08/20

05 August 2020

The two sides that suffered identical 1-0 defeats in their YBC Levain Cup opening matches will lock horns at the Oita Bank Dome this midweek as Oita take on Gamba Osaka.

The hosts come into this encounter on a run of four consecutive defeats, all of which saw them concede at least one goal in both halves. It goes from bad to worse for Oita, given both of their previous home outings saw them lose by a three-goal margin. It’s worth mentioning, though, that none of their eight competitive H2H meetings held at this venue ended in a draw (W3, L5), which has been true in nine of Oita’s last ten home matches (W3, D1, L6). In turn, all eight of those H2H results (wins/losses) saw the winner on the day score over 1.5 goals, which has been the case with eight of the abovementioned ten Oita’s recent home fixtures.

Meanwhile, a narrow 1-0 away loss to Kawasaki at the weekend brought Gamba’s four-game winning run to a halt. That now means that eight of their nine competitive games this calendar year have ended separating the sides by a full-time margin no greater than one goal (W5, D1, L3). Although their latest trip to Oita yielded a 2-1 defeat, the visitors will be confident of settling the score now after putting together five away matches without a loss (W4, D1). Notably, all of those fixtures saw Tsuneyasu Miyamoto’s team break the deadlock and move on to add at least one more goal before FT. But, Gamba’s defensive woes could torment the traveling side here. Indeed, they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet in 15 of their last 17 road trips, conceding over 1.5 goals on ten of those occasions.