Shimizu S-Pulse vs Nagoya Grampus 05/08/20

05 August 2020

Nagoya Grampus travel to the IAI Stadium Nihondaira to take on out-of-sorts Shimizu S-Pulse in the second round of the YBC Levain Cup.  

The hosts will be desperate to bounce back after suffering a dismal 5-1 away defeat to Kawasaki in their Group A curtain-raiser. But, it will be a daunting prospect for Shimizu to do so, considering they’ve picked up only one win from seven competitive games since the restart (D2, L4). Scandalous defending has seen Peter Cklamovski’s side fail to keep a clean sheet in each of those clashes and concede over 1.5 match goals five times along the way. In turn, despite losing just two of their last six competitive H2H meetings with Nagoya (W2, D2), Shimizu have shipped precisely two goals on five of those occasions. 

On the other hand, the visitors started the competition with a 1-0 home win over Kashima, which pretty much highlights Nagoya’s combative mentality. Indeed, nine of their last 11 competitive matches have ended separating the sides by under 1.5 goals (W5, D3, L3), with six of those eight results (wins/losses) seeing the winner on the day keep a blank sheet. Despite losing four of their last five H2Hs (W1), Nagoya can draw inspiration from an impressive away form in 2020. After being held to a 1-1 draw to Vegalta Sendai in their first trip since the turn of the year, ‘Grampus’ have racked up three consecutive wins, all of which saw them open the scoring in the first half and score over 1.5 total goals.