Round 16 of the 2023 Chinese Super League season sees Changchun Yatai welcome Zhejiang Professional to the Development Area Stadium on Wednesday.
Having both suffered defeat in their respective last outings, the teams head into this one aiming to return to winning ways as quickly as possible.
Match preview
Changchun Yatai fell to a narrow 2-1 defeat against Wuhan Three Towns when the teams faced off at the Wuhan Sports Centre on Saturday afternoon.
Chen Yang's men fell behind to Davidson's opener midway through the second half but managed to level matters through Jinxian Wang, after which Aziz scored the winner from 12 yards.
As a result, the Jilin-based side have dropped down to eighth in the Chinese Super League table and are now four points adrift of a place in the top four.
Next up is the challenge of an opposing outfit who are yet to come out on top in any of the last seven editions of this fixture across all competitions since 2019.
Currently on a run of consecutive home wins by a combined score of 7-2, Wednesday's hosts will back themselves to get the job done in front of their fans.
Zhejiang Professional were on the receiving end of a 1-0 defeat against Shanghai Shenhua in Friday's encounter at the Huizhou Olympic Stadium.
Hanchao Yu's opener 13th minute proved to be the all-important moment as Jordi Vinyals's men failed to find the back of the net for the first time in 11 outings.
With 18 points picked up from 15 matches so far, the Green Giants sit ninth in the standings, albeit now five points adrift in the race for a place in the top half.
Off the back of a first away defeat since May in their most recent game on the road, Wednesday's visitors set out to avoid back to back defeats on enemy territory.
Team News
Yu Dong missed Zhejiang's last outing through suspension, but the midfielder is eligible to play a part here and should make an immediate return to the lineup.
Consequently, Dongsheng Wang is expected to be dropped to the bench for this one after he was given the nod to feature right from the off last time out due to Dong's absence.
Jinxian Wang is a doubt for Changchun Yatai, having come off with an injury scare in the final knockings against Wuhan Three Towns last time out.
Should Wang be deemed unfit to participate, Abdulhamit Abdugheni could earn a recall to XI for what would be only his eighth start of the season.
Changchun Yatai possible starting lineup:
Wu; Yan, Okore, Yi, Liao; Wang, Zhang, Abdusalam, Liu; Tan, Zulj
Zhejiang Professional possible starting lineup:
Zhao; Yue, Possignolo, Leung, Dong; Li, N'Doumbou; Gao, Cheng, Kouassi; Mushekwi
We say: Changchun Yatai 1-1 Zhejiang Professional
Zhejiang have struggled for goals against Changchun of late, but we are backing them to get on the scoresheet this time around. We are also tipping the sides to cancel each other out and settle for a point apiece in the end.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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