FC Seoul put a slight damper on the proceedings with a fortunate goal in stoppage time, but Gamba Osaka must be happy to come home with a two goal lead and three away goals in this Asian Champions league Last 16 tie.

Gamba boss Kenta Hasegawa said he wanted an away goal… he got more that requested as Gamba took their hosts to the cleaners!

The unstoppable Takashi Usami scored two classy goals and Koki Yonekura added his contribution to the score-sheet as Gamba destroyed their hosts with ease.

Usami showed the traveling fans a textbook volley from a pinpoint Hiroki Fujiharu cross to open the scoring just after the hour mark, while Yonekura then showed that he can execute a volley to compare with the best his forwards have to offer, and this was also from a Fujiharu cross. Usami then completed his team’s scoring with four minutes on the clock to give Gamba a three goal lead as the game entered additional time.

Yu Jun-tae then gave his side some faint hope / made the 2nd leg interesting (delete as applicable) with a speculative shot from the edge of the area that seemed to bobble in front of the unsighted Masaaki Higashiguchi in the away goal.

Gamba didn’t get a single shot on target in the first period, but their best chance of the half was actually foiled by the referee! With Seoul goalkeeper Yu Sang-hun on the floor after a melee the ball rolled free to Yasuyuki Konno who looked to have a shot into an unguarded net. Inexplicably, the Japan national team midfielder was upended by the referee – getting in his way in the penalty area. Replays showed that it was yellow card offence by the man with the whistle, at the very least!

Shu Kurata replaced Koyato Omori at half time and had a shot on goal within 80 seconds of the restart. Kurata and Fujiharu then made mincemeat of the right side of the home defence and it was Gamba’s game!

Gamba entertain Seoul in the 2nd leg on Wednesday May 27th at Banpaku – do not miss this one, as they look to enter the quarter final draw in the competition.

Images courtesy of World Sport Group

Head to Head – 10 wins for Antlers, just 2 for Reysol, and 5 draws since 2003. Both of Reysol’s wins came last season in their Championship winning year.

Match Preview – Kashima Antlers now have nothing left to play for, having gained J1 safety last week due to an away defeat of Nagoya Grampus. Coach Jorginho will be looking for a win that could pull his team up a couple of players, but it would still not be as high as the fans would have expected. Will a Nabisco Cup win be enoughfor Jorginho to keep his job? We shall see. Koroki should be back from injury but Dutra is coming good, finally, and might benefit from being show the team has confidence in him by leaving him in the starting XI?

For Kashiwa Reysol this is a do or die match for a place in the 2013 ACL and, even if they win, they have to rely on Sagan Tosu not winning. Influential C is back and in form and the other decent Brazilian they have, Jorge Wagner, scored the match-winning goal against Vissel Kobe last week . . a big finish for this team and then they have to wait and see what happens in Tosu. EXPECT a DRAW anyway!