Tokyo Verdy 0–2 Sanfrecce Hiroshima

Sanfrecce Hiroshima needed less than fifteen second-half minutes to settle this one at Tokyo Verdy. Taishi Matsumoto broke the deadlock in the 47th, and Akito Suzuki doubled it in the 58th to put the game away. It extends a brutal run for Tokyo Verdy, who sit 20th in the J1 League with just four points and one win from five, their form reading LDDLL, and now stretch their head-to-head losing streak against this opponent to two straight defeats without a single win or draw. Hiroshima, by contrast, look every bit a side on the rise, up to 5th with 17 points and three wins in their last five, form reading WWLWD. Neither Matsumoto nor Suzuki cracks the league's top ten scorers, a list still topped by Léo Ceará's 36 goals, but on this night they didn't need the pedigree, just two clean finishes eleven minutes apart. Watch how Matsumoto springs the opener in the 47th and Suzuki twists the knife in the 58th, back-to-back blows Tokyo Verdy never recovered from.