Vissel Kobe vs Barcelona 27/07/19

27 July 2019

Vissel Kobe welcome Barcelona to the Noevir Stadium Kobe for a friendly fixture, hoping to find a way out of a severe crisis.

A sudden drop-off in form has seen the Japanese side go from six games without a loss (W4, D2) to three consecutive defeats. All three of Kobe’s losses ahead of this clash have seen them concede two or more goals, with Thorsten Fink’s men scoring one goal or less in each. Still, all six of Ushi’s last games have produced over 2.5 goals, with four of them witnessing goals at both ends. Also, all of those games have featured goals in both halves, with Kobe leading at the break on four occasions.

Barcelona travel here on a three-game winless streak (D1, L2), with all of those matches seeing both teams score and Barca concede precisely two goals. A run of poor form lately has seen the Catalans pick up just one triumph in their last six outings (W1, D1, L4), with Ernesto Valverde’s men conceding over 1.5 goals across all of those failures. Still, if La Liga giants win here, it will probably be to nil, as eight of their previous nine wins saw them beat their rivals without conceding a goal. Also, they have scored 2+ match goals in seven of those wins, while leading at the halftime on six occasions in the process.