Sagan Tosu are sitting at 17th place in the league and will take on Consadole Sapporo at Best Amenity Stadium in hopes to win their 3rd game this season and work their way out of the relegation zone.
The home side, as mentioned before are struggling this season, winning only 2 games thus far and managed to combine only 8 points in the 11 games played. Looking at their offensive line, they have not been doing a great job. Sagan Tosu scored only 1 goal in the past 5 games, which is not nearly good enough, especially when facing Sapporo, who do have a quite solid defence. The problems with their offense get even worse, when we take into consideration the absence of Ibarbo who is the team leader and one of the key attacking players. All in all this does not look as a promising fixture for them. In addition to Ibarbo, Sagan Tosu will be without Taniguchi, and Akahoshi who are both also injured.
The visiting team, Consadole Sapporo are currently at the 4th spot in the league with an overall record of 5-4-2. I must also mention, they have not lost a match in the past 5, which is clearly a sign of a good form. We can all expect Sapporo will want to secure all 3 points, which would potentially put them in the 3rd spot in the league. On the contrary to Sagan Tosu, Sapporo offensive line has been performing well, scoring 4 goals in the past 2 games. If they can continue this way, we can expect a lot of scoring opportunities from Sapporo against poor defence of Sagan Tosu.
Verdict & Prediction
The quality is on the visiting team’s side, there is no doubt about that. Sagan Tosu has been performing terribly and with missing key players I don’t see them being a real threat to Sapporo. Betting on over 2.25 seems tempting, but Sagan Tosu does need points so I wouldn’t be surprised if they approached more defensively. With that in mind, Sapporo +0 is a good bet to take.
Prediction: Consadole Sapporo +0.00 Asian Handicap (same as Draw no bet option)
Odds: 1.82 SBOBET, 1.80 Pinnacle
Make sure you check out our another J-League betting preview, for the match between Nagoya and Cerezo Osaka.
