Having picked up their first win of the 2022 Chinese Super League season last time out, Tianjin Jinmen Tiger welcome Meizhou Hakka to the Olympic Sports Center Stadium on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the away side make the trip looking to preserve their unbeaten record, although they could certainly do with all three points off the back of consecutive stalemates.
Match preview
Tianjin Jinmen got the better of Cangzhou Mighty Lions in a comfortable 2-0 win at the Wuhua County Olympic Sports Centre on Tuesday.
Uli Stielike's men stormed into a two-goal lead after just 15 minutes lead thanks to strikes from Weijun Xie and Dun Ba, which proved to be the difference.
With five points amassed from as many games so far, the Tigers have moved up to 12th place in the league standings and are now only a point away from the top half.
Awaiting them next is a clash versus an opposing side who their only previous encounter with ended in a 1-1 stalemate earlier this month.
Currently on a dismal run of one home victory in six matches, Saturday's hosts will be keen to turn things around in front of their fans by securing all three points this weekend.
Meizhou Hakka played out a fourth draw of the season in Monday's meeting against Chengdu Rongcheng at the Chengdu Phoenix Hill Sports Park.
Milan Ristic's men dominated for the majority of the contest but failed to find that all-important winning goal, which they perhaps merited on the balance of play.
Despite being one of only four teams yet to lose this term, the Guangdong-based side sit eight in the table at the moment with seven points from five outings.
Having lost just one of their last 14 games away from home dating back to last July, Saturday's visitors will back themselves to secure another positive result on the road.
- D
- L
- L
- D
- W
- D
- D
- W
- D
- D
Team News
Weijun Xie put up a man-of-the-match performance in Tianjin's victory over Cangzhou and will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Yuanjie Su will be pushing for a start here after he was dropped to the bench for the first time this term in the aforementioned game.
Midfielder Chaosheng Yang is eligible to take part this weekend having missed Meizhou's trip to Chengdu due to a one-game suspension.
Thirty-year-old Yihu Yang was also absent from his side's last outing through injury and remains a major doubt for this weekend's contest.
Tianjin Jinmen Tiger possible starting lineup:
Xu; Bai, Yang, Andujar, Wang; Shi, Rosa, Zhao, Wang, Ba; Xie
Meizhou Hakka possible starting lineup:
Hou; Chen, Nunez, Dugalic, Liao; Shi, Kosovic; Li, Henrique, Yang; Vukanovic
We say: Tianjin Jinmen Tiger 0-1 Meizhou Hakka
There is little to choose between the teams coming into this one, and the game could easily swing either way. That said, we just about fancy the visitors to claim a narrow win at the end of the 90 minutes.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
body check tags ::
Previews by email