Fresh off the back of reaching the fourth round of the Emperor Cup, Consadole Sapporo take on Albirex Niigata in round 21 of the J1 League on Saturday.
Having failed to win any of the last six meetings between the sides, the Consa will head into the weekend looking to get one over the visitors and pick up successive home wins for the first time since May.
Match preview
Consadole Sapporo turned in a performance of the highest quality on Wednesday when they cruised to a 5-2 victory over Verspah Oita in the third round of the Emperor Cup.
Gun-hee Kim and Shido Izuma scored twice on either side of Akito Fukumori's 60th-minute strike to send the Japanese Football League outfit out of the competition.
Mihailo Petrovic's men had failed to taste victory in any of their previous five outings across all tournaments, a run that has seen them pick up two points from the last 12 available in the J1 League.
The Consa's most recent league victory came on June 3 when they edged out Kashiwa Reysol 5-4 in a nine-goal thriller at the Sankyo Frontier Kashiwa Stadium.
With 27 points from 20 matches, Consadole Sapporo are currently 10th in the J1 League standings but could move level on points with sixth-placed Kashima Antlers with all three points this weekend.
Albirex Niigata, on the other hand, were sent crashing back to earth last time out when they fell to a 1-0 defeat against Vissel Kobe at the Denka Big Swan Stadium.
Yuya Osako came up clutch for Vissel Kobe once again as he grabbed his 13th league goal of the season to hand them a narrow victory and keep them within three points of league leaders Yokohama F Marinos.
Prior to that, the Albi snapped their three-game winless run on July 1 when they picked up a 2-0 victory over Sanfrecce Hiroshima courtesy of a 25th-minute effort from Shunsuke Mito and Hayato Araki's own goal.
Rikizo Matsuhashi's men have now lost nine of their 20 J1 League matches so far while picking up five wins and six draws to collect 21 points and sit 14th in the league table.
Albirex Niigata will fancy their chances of returning to winning ways this weekend as they take on an opposing side who have failed to win their last eight meetings, losing six and claiming two draws since April 2008.
Team News
Izuma netted twice in an impressive seven-minute cameo in midweek and the 18-year-old forward could be rewarded with his first league start of the season.
Yuya Asano and Tsuyoshi Ogashiwa have a combined 20 goal involvements in the league this season and we expect the duo to spearhead the Consadole Sapporo attack once again.
Takuro Kaneko currently leads the hosts' scoring charts with eight goals and should retain his role at the centre of the park, alongside Hiroki Miyazawa and Takuma Arano, who has started 19 of the 20 league matches this season.
On the injury front, Petrovic will be unable to call upon the duo of Shingo Omori and Tsuyoshi Ogashiwa, who have been sidelined through shin and hamstring injuries respectively.
Albirex Niigata, on the other hand, remain without the experience of 30-year-old midfielder Yoshiaki Takagi, who is currently recuperating from a muscle injury.
He is joined on the club's injury table by Japanese full-back Yuto Horigome, who has missed the last two matches after picking up a muscle injury against Kashiwa Reysol.
Consadole Sapporo possible starting lineup:
Sugeno; Nakamura, Okamura, Tanaka; Fernandes, Miyazawa, Arano, Kaneko; Asano, Sarachart, Ogashiwa
Albirex Niigata possible starting lineup:
Kojima; Fujiwara, Deng, Watanabe, Arai; Ko, Hoshi; Matsuda, Mito, Komi; Taniguchi
We say: Consadole Sapporo 2-0 Albirex Niigata
Hokkaido Consadole Sapporo and Albirex Niigata have struggled for consistency this season and find themselves in the bottom half of the table. The hosts head into the weekend fresh off the back of a morale-boosting cup victory and we fancy them to see off the Albi, who are without an away win since February.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Joshua Ojele
