Urawa Reds vs Cerezo Osaka Prediction: a tough contest ahead.

Cerezo Osaka will travel to Saitama on Wednesday as they lock horn with Urawa Reds at the Saitama Stadium. The host will hope to get a win to continue their good form. Meanwhile, Osaka will look to close the gap at the top and get a classy win here.

Urawa Red Diamonds will look to build off of their 4-1 victory over Kashiwa Reysol in the J1 League in their most recent matchup. Urawa Red Diamonds had 65% of the ball and 25 shots (20 on goal) in that game. Yusuke Matsuo (7 minutes), Alex Schalk (24 minutes), Tetsuya Chinen (57 minutes), and Alexander Scholz (85 minutes) scored for the Urawa Red Diamonds. There were eight shots on goal for Kashiwa Reysol, with five of them finding the back of the net. Kashiwa Reysol got the goal in the 89th minute from Mao Hosoya. Recently, games featuring the Urawa Red Diamonds have been exciting affairs with high expectations for goal-mouth activity. In their last six meetings, both teams have scored a total of 28 goals (4.67 per game), with 23 of those goals being credited to Urawa Red Diamonds. What remains to be seen is whether or not that upward trend can be maintained. The Urawa Red Diamonds come into this game having won their last 11 home league matches. A streak they'll be looking to continue in this venue.

In their previous five games, Cerezo Osaka won one against Sagan Tosu and three against Sanfrecce Hiroshima, Consadole Sapporo, and Sanfrecce Hiroshima, while one match ended in a draw. The club scored six goals while surrendering seven. In away games, Cerezo Osaka scored an average of 1.56 goals per match and conceded 1.19. The team received 22 yellow and two red cards, while the total number of fouls was 233. Cerezo Osaka has a 6.76 average match rating as a team. Looking at their form, Cerezo Osaka scored against in 5 of their previous six games, letting opponents get nine goals in total. At the back, Cerezo Osaka could do with shoring things up.

Looking back at their previous head-to-head matches to 13/09/2019, Urawa Red Diamonds have won 2, and Cerezo Osaka has won 4, with no game ending in a draw. In this time frame, they have combined to give up 15 goals 6 for the Reds and 9 for Sakura). That works out to 2.5 goals per game on average. Cerezo Osaka defeated Urawa Red Diamonds 2-0 in their most recent league meeting on May 25, 2022 on match day 15 of the J1 League this season.