Nagoya Gramous and Yokohama F. Marinos will trade tackles at the Nissan Stadium in a J1 League fixture on Saturday.
The home side come into the game on the back of a convincing 4-2 victory over Daegu in the round-of-16 of the AFC Champions League on Tuesday. Jakub Swierczok starred with a hat-trick to guide his side to the quarterfinals.
Yokohama F. Marinos secured a comfortable 3-1 victory away to Sanfrecce Hiroshima last Saturday. Daizen Maeda, Yuya Saneto and Leo Ceara all got on the scoresheet for Marinos.
That victory saw Yokohama cut the gap to table-toppers Kawasaki Frontale to one point, albeit having played one game more. Nagoya Grampus are in fourth place with 50 points from 28 matches.
Nagoya Grampus vs Yokohama F. Marinos Head-to-Head
Nagoya Grampus have 12 wins from their last 36 matches against Yokohama F. Marinos.
The two sides shared the spoils on 14 occasions while Marinos have 10 wins to their name.
Their most recent meeting came in August when first-half goals from Kenyu Sugimoto and Marcos Junior helped Marinos secure a routine 2-0 home win.
The hosts are currently on a nine-game unbeaten run, with eight matches in this sequence ending in a victory. Yokohama F. Marinos have also been on a fine run of form and have registered 10 wins from their last 12 matches in all competitions.
Nagoya Grampus form guide (all competitions): W-W-W-W-D
Yokohama F. Marinos form guide (all competitions): W-L-W-W-W
Nagoya Grampus vs Yokohama F. Marinos Team News
Nagoya Grampus
Yuichi Maruyama is the only injury concern for the hosts with a cruciate ligament injury. Ryogo Yamasaki has recovered from his ankle injury and could be in line for selection.
Injury: Yuichi Maruyama
Suspension: None
Yokohama F. Marinos
Shinnosuke Hatanaka (tendonitis) and Shunsuke Hirai (ankle) have both been ruled out due to injuries.
Injuries: Shinnosuke Hatanaka, Shunsuke Hirai
Suspension: None
Nagoya Grampus vs Yokohama F. Marinos Predicted XI
Nagoya Grampus Predicted XI (4-2-3-1): Mitchell Langerak (GK); Yutaka Yoshida, Min-Tae Kim, Shinnosuke Nakatani, Shumpei Naruse; Kazuki Nagasawa, Sho Inagaki; Ryoya Morishita, Naoki Maeda, Mateus; Jakub Swierczok
Yokohama F. Marinos Predicted XI (4-3-3): Yohei Takaoka (GK); Takuya Wada, Yuki Saneto, Theeraton Bunmathan, Ryuta Koike; Takahiro Ogihara, Takuya Kida, Jun Amano; Teruhito Nakagawa, Daizen Maeda, Leo Ceara
Nagoya Grampus vs Yokohama F. Marinos Prediction
Yokohama F. Marinos are more in need of points given their title tilt but a rampant Nagoya Grampus are unlikely to make life easy for them.
Both sides will fancy their chances of getting the victory considering their form but Marinos could deploy more caution as they have a lot more to lose. Although one side could nick this one, we are predicting a share of the points in a tactical encounter.
Prediction: Nagoya Grampus 1-1 Yokohama F. Marinos