Wuhan entertain the challenge of Guangzhou at the Jinzhou Stadium on Monday in matchday eight of the 2022 Chinese Super League season.
Both teams suffered defeat in their respective last outings and will now be looking to get themselves back on track in this one.
Match preview
Wuhan were beaten for the fourth match in a row following an agonising 2-1 loss against Hebei FC in Thursday's duel at the Puwan Stadium.
Li Jinyu's men went behind early on to Wei Zhang's penalty but restored parity through Tian Ming in the second half before Zhang grabbed his second of the game, which turned out to be the decider three minutes from time.
Since kicking off the current campaign with three straight wins, the Han Army have failed to pick up any points from the subsequent four outings and now sit 13th in the league table.
Next up is the task of facing off against an opposing side who have lost the most recent two of the previous seven meetings between the teams after winning each of the first five clashes.
Off the back of consecutive defeats on their own turf, Monday's hosts set out to avoid losing three games in a row in front of their fans for the first time in over a year.
Guangzhou FC came away empty-handed from their encounter with Wuhan Three Towns on Thursday, which ended 2-1 in favour of the latter.
Liu Zhiyu's men opened the scoring in the 20th minute through Dinghao Yan, but goals from Nicolae Stanciu and Pengfei Xie in either half turned the game on its head.
With just three points amassed from a possible 21 so far, the South China Tigers remain 16th in the standings, albeit just two points adrift of safety.
Having conceded the most goals away from home in the entire division, Monday's visitors must turn things around defensively to prevent an eight straight defeat on the road since the turn of the year.
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Team News
Eighteen-year-old Afrden Asqer recently made his return to action from a one-game suspension, and he is expected to retain his starting spot here.
Still yet to find the back of the net in 2022, Jiaheng Li could be dropped to the bench for this one as Liu Zhiyu seeks to fix his misfiring attack which has yielded just three goals this term.
Wuhan's Peng Li grabbed the winning goal in the last edition of Monday's fixture, and the 31-year-old will be looking to deliver the goods once again.
Jiali Hu will be pushing for a start in this one after the Chinese midfielder failed to feature for the first time this season last time out.
Wuhan possible starting lineup:
Wang; Liu, Viana, Li, Ming; R. Hu, J. Hu, Ye, Kajevic, Hu; Brown
Guangzhou possible starting lineup:
Lui; Wang, Li, Wu, Chen; Yan, Huang; Asqer, Zheng, Fan; Li
We say: Wuhan 2-1 Guangzhou
The sides will head into the match sensing an opportunity to heap more misery on each other, and we are expecting an open affair with chances at both ends. That said, we are tipping Wuhan to narrowly come out on top at the sound of the full-time whistle.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Top tip
Adepoju Marvellous
