📏 Form Guide

Cerezo Osaka

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Cerezo Osaka, buoyed by their previous result, will be hoping for more of the same after a 1-4 J. League Cup victory over Kyoto Sanga.

For Cerezo Osaka, the scorers were Kakeru Funaki (48'), Thiago Andrade (61', 73') and Rafael Ratão (81'). Murilo Costa (10') scored for Kyoto Sanga.

It’s been seldom in recent times where Cerezo Osaka have managed to hold out for a full 90 minutes. It will be a concern for them that Cerezo Osaka have been scored against in 5 of their previous 6 matches, shipping 8 goals along the way. Such a pattern might not be carried forward into this match, of course.

Going into this one, Cerezo Osaka have not been beaten in the league by Avispa Fukuoka in their last 2 games.

Avispa Fukuoka

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Avispa Fukuoka head into the match following on from a 1-2 J. League Cup win in the defeat of Kataller Toyama in their most recent game.

The only scorer from Avispa Fukuoka was Hiroki Akino (40').

It has become apparent that Avispa Fukuoka have suffered from a shortage of goals over their last 6 games, recording the disappointing return of just 3. In those fixtures, Avispa have also seen the collective goal tally of their opponents equal 5.

Going into this contest, Avispa Fukuoka are without a win away from home in their last 4 matches in the league.

↔️ Head to head

Looking over their most recent head to head meetings dating back to 17/04/2022 tells us that Cerezo Osaka have won 3 of them & Avispa Fukuoka 2, with the number of drawn games being 1.

A total of 10 goals were scored between the two sides in this period, with 7 of them from Sakura and 3 netted by Avispa. The average number of goals per game works out to 1.67.

The previous league contest featuring the two was J1 League match day 36 on 09/11/2024 and the score finished Cerezo Osaka 1-0 Avispa Fukuoka.

On that occasion, Cerezo Osaka had 55% possession and 19 shots on goal with 6 on target. The scorer was Shunta Tanaka (81').

For their opponents, Avispa Fukuoka had 12 shots on goal with 1 on target.

The match was refereed by Akihiko Ikeuchi.

ℹ️ Team News: Cerezo Osaka

There’s just the lone fitness concern for the Cerezo Osaka boss Arthur Papas to be concerned with due to a largely intact set of players. Yuichi Hirano (Meniscus injury) misses out.

We think that Sakura look set to employ a 3-4-2-1 system in the match, beginning the first half with Koki Fukui, Ryosuke Shindo, Shinnosuke Hatanaka, Ryuya Nishio, Hayato Okuda, Hinata Kida, Shinji Kagawa, Niko Takahashi, Sota Kitano, Lucas Fernandes and Rafael Ratao.

ℹ️ Team News: Avispa Fukuoka

Avispa Fukuoka boss Myung-hwi Kim has some current player fitness concerns. Hisashi Jogo (Cruciate ligament injury), Tatsuki Nara (Knee surgery), Jurato Ikeda (Meniscus injury) and Itsuki Oda (Meniscus injury) miss out here.

It’s our belief that Avispa Fukuoka might play in a 3-4-2-1 lineup, choosing Masaaki Murakami, Takumi Kamijima, Tomoya Ando, Masaya Tashiro, Yota Maejima, Daiki Matsuoka, Shintaro Nago, Takaaki Shichi, Kazuya Konno, Kazuki Fujimoto and Yuto Iwasaki.

🧠 Prediction

We’ve got the feeling that Avispa Fukuoka have the ability to find the back of the net against this Cerezo Osaka team, but that may not be enough to avoid defeat.

Our selection here is for both teams to score in a 2-1 victory for Cerezo Osaka after 90 minutes. Let’s wait and see how it plays out.

Renata Leite, 05:05 24/05/2025