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Nagoya Grampus won 1-0 against Kashima Antlers in the 6^th fixture of the J1 league and Nagoya Grampus was able to conserve their second spot which would allow them to qualify for next season’s AFC Champions League group stage if they continue in holding this second spot. While on the other hand, Kashima Antlers suffered a disappointing defeat at home that saw them retreating back to the 15^th spot, which is a dangerous one. This match should have created some good opportunities for betting lovers and Latest Casino fans. Yet, Kashima Antlers were the biggest losers out of this match. 

In fact, Kashima Antlers are only having 4 points at the moment and that’s what separates them from the last spot. And therefore, if Kashima Antlers fail to win in their next two matches, they could find themselves at the bottom of the J1 league standings. So, to overcome this difficult period, Kashima Antlers will need to start gaining points even by making some draws or alternating between wins and draws in order to improve their position early. 

Kashima Antlers, coached by Antônio Carlos Zago, went out to the pitch with the 4-4-2 formation relying on Yuya Oki as a goalkeeper, Kei Koizumi as a right-back, both Tomoya Inukai and Koki Machida as center-backs and Daiki Sugioka as a left-back. Antônio Carlos Zago preferred to play with two lines of defense composed of 4 players each, and that’s why we saw a compact defense during this match even though they were not able to keep a clean sheet. So, in midfield, Yuta Matsumura played as a right-winger, Léo Silva, and Kento Misao as central midfielders and Ryotaro Araki as a left-winger. While in attack, the team relied on their two strikers, Juan Alano and Everaldo Stum. 

Kashima Soccer Stadium, the stadium has a capacity of 40,000 photo courtesy of Wiki

For the visitors, managed by Massimo Ficcadenti, Nagoya Grampus started the match with a 4-2-3-1 formation using Mitchell Langerak as a goalkeeper, a defensive line composed of 4 players, namely Kazuya Miyahara as a right-back, Shinnosuke Nakatani and Yuichi Maruyama as center-backs and Yutaka Yoshida as a left-back. The midfield however consisted of 2 central midfielders who supported the attack and at the same time prevented Kashima Antlers players from advancing before they reach the team’s final third. Sho Inagaki, the match’s goal-scorer, along with Takuji Yonemoto were the ones who played this role behind the attacking trio which was composed of Mateus dos Santos Castro as a right-winger, Yoichiro Kakitani as an advanced playmaker, and Yuki Soma as a left-winger while Ryogo Yamasaki was the team’s sole striker. 

Kashima Antlers were able to create goal-scoring chances and attack especially in the second half, and they were also able to keep way more possession than Nagoya Grampus, with 62% for the locals and 38% for the visitors. In fact, this high percentage of possession allowed Kashima Antlers to shoot 8 times on goal and get 5 corners and 25 fouls, yet, the players were not able to exploit this domination to their favor and missed several scoring chances such as Yuta Matsumura’s powerful shot which was saved by Mitchell Langerak with great difficulty.

While on the other hand, Nagoya Grampus was patient enough and knew how to deal with the difficult moments of the match before scoring their precious goal. The team made 7 shots and obtained 2 corners and 13 fouls and they were mainly dangerous during the first-time. And the biggest chance came from Mateus dos Santos Castro who got a clear goal-scoring opportunity at the 31st minute which went off target with a few inches. 

Nagoya Grampus was realistic enough in this match and they exploited one of the 2 corners they got in order to score their goal. It was a beautiful action that started from Mateus dos Santos Castro’s cross and ended with an excellent shot from Sho Inagaki that went inside the net on the bottom-left corner. 

Following Nagoya Grampus’s goal, Kashima Antlers made some desperate attempts to equalize but their efforts went in vain since Léo Silva’s shot went out of the goal. 

And things aggravated even further for the locals following Tomoya Inukai’s red card that made the match even more difficult for the team that was looking for a draw at the last minutes of the match. 

At the end of the day, Nagoya Grampus got the victory that they wanted after exploiting the few chances they had, while Kashima Antlers were neither able to keep a clean sheet nor to score an equalizing goal to save the result. 

image courtesy of unsplash.com/Wiki