Match Report
The table gap was wide: 44 points between Sanfrecce Hiroshima (4th, 68 pts) and Albirex Niigata (20th, 24 pts). Scoring rates set the scale: Albirex Niigata 0.95 scored and 1.76 conceded per game, Sanfrecce Hiroshima 1.21 and 0.74, with the league averaging 1.2.
Albirex Niigata had been beaten in five straight games. The five-game form split read 0/15 points for Albirex Niigata against 9/15 for Sanfrecce Hiroshima.
The head-to-head ledger counts 5 games: 1 Albirex Niigata win, 2 for Sanfrecce Hiroshima, 2 draws, at 2 goals per meeting. Whoever hosts gains little here: home teams have taken just 20% of the wins in this fixture. Low-scoring is the pattern: just 20% of the meetings went over two goals.
The referee was Y. Imamura, with 79 matches in our database and 1.1 yellows per game on average. The match was played at Denka Big Swan Stadium in Niigata (capacity 42,300). On the scoreboard, Sanfrecce Hiroshima led 1-0 at the break; 1 second-half goal set the final 0-2.
Goal scorers
Sanfrecce Hiroshima: Shunki Higashi (2'), Kosuke Kinoshita (48')