Shimizu S-Pulse vs Nagoya Grampus

Underperforming Nagoya will be looking to post consecutive J1 League wins for the first time this season when they meet an out-of-sorts Shimizu S-Pulse at the IAI Stadium Nihondaira.

Tipped for a season-long fight against the drop, Shimizu have failed to defy their status as warm relegation candidates, going winless in 11 of their 13 J1 League fixtures so far this term (D7, L4). What’s more, Hiroaki Hiraoka’s men are still waiting for their first league win at home this season (D4, L2), while they’ve conceded precisely twice in their last two home leauge outings. Things are going from bad to worse for Shimizu as they are about to tackle a Nagoya side they’ve lost to in each of their four previous competitive H2Hs at home. To make things even worse, they have failed to score in the last three in a row, losing two of them by the same 3-0 scoreline.

But there’s still hope for Shimizu, as 13th-placed Nagoya harbour a slender one-point lead on them, following an underwhelming start to the season of their own. Before eking out a narrow 1-0 home triumph over Cerezo Osaka last time out, Nagoya had alternated between draws (2) and defeats (2) across their four previous league fixtures. By extension, they had been winless in six J1 League games beforehand (D3, L3), netting under 1.5 goals on each occasion. Coming into this matchday, the ‘Grampus’ are the worst-performing away side in Japan’s top-flight, as they’ve amassed a league-low two points from their opening six J1 League travels (D2, L4). Moreover, before a brace of 2-1 defeats in their last two away league games, Nagoya had drawn a blank in back-to-back such fixtures beforehand.