After winning the opening matches of the season, Nagoya Grampus and Cerezo Osaka will get a chance to test their strength against each other on March 2nd at Toyota Stadium.

Nagoya Grampus are currently leading the J1 league, and while it may not seem like that means a lot after 1 round, it does tell us they were the most effective team in the first round of J1 League. In their recent match, Nagoya were faced off against Sagan Tosu who Nagoya defeated 0:4. And while we did not expect Sagan Tosu to win, losing 0:4 is a completely different story. In the mentioned match, we did not see much action in the first half, except the 4 shots on goal from both sides combined. It was not until the 2nd half when Nagoya woke up and took over the match. They scored the first goal in the 63rd minute, to which they added another in 77th, 79th and finally in the 89th minute. The best scorer was Jo, who scored 2 goals and will hope to build on his great performance and repeat it against Cerezo Osaka.

The visiting side, Cerezo Osaka were not as impressive as Nagoya Grampus in the 1st round of J1 League, however, they still performed exceptionally well. C-Osaka were paired with Kobe, who they played against on February 22nd at Yanmar Stadium Nagai. To be fair it was expected for Kobe to win the mentioned match, especially with all the star players they possess, but the truth was far from that. Kobe managed to hold the ball for 62% of the time, had 15 goal attempts and 5 shots on goal, while C-Osaka had 10 goal attempts and 4 shots on goal, all while only having 38% ball possession. Surprisingly enough, it was not Kobe, but Osaka who scored the only goal of the match in 77th minute. All in all a good result for Osaka and a disappointing one for Kobe, who will try to grab their first points against Sagan Tosu.

Nagoya will come into this match without Aoki, Eduardo Neto and Mateus, while C-Osaka won't have Desabato and Tokura at their disposal.

I was looking at the forecast for Toyota City on March 2nd and it showed a lot of goals. If there is one thing we can take from the league-opening matches of these two teams it's that they know how to attack and score goals. On one side we have got Nagoya, who already proven how strong they can be in the attack numerous times before and on the other side we have got Cerezo Osaka, who I believe possess a lot of potential up front. Last time these two sides met, the match ended 0:0, and if there is one thing I'm sure of is that this won't be the case here. Nagoya will look to build on their impressive 1st round performance, while C-Osaka won't just stand by and watch. They have put up a great show against Kobe, and if they can produce something similar here, we are in for an interesting match. Expect to see over 2.5 goals in this match.

Prediction: Over 2.50 goals
BetScorum: https://betscorum.com/en-us/game/5859