Gamba Osaka gained revenge for their 5-1 thrashing at Kashima Antlers two weeks ago with a 2-1 victory over the newly-crowned J1 champions in the quarter-finals of the Emperor’s Cup.
Returning to the scene of where their own title challenge had ended so crushingly, Gamba were forced to pair Takahiro Futagawa with Masato Yamazaki in an unfamiliar forward line when Korean striker Cho Jae-Jin was taken ill shortly before kick-off. The change proved a blessing in disguise as the away side controlled much of the game with Yamazaki scoring twice, heading home a Yasuhito Endo free-kick in the first half before taking advantage of Atsuto Uchida’s mistake to seal the win midway through the second. Kashima had equalised just before the interval through Yuzo Tashiro.
Gamba’s opponents in the semi-final at the National Stadium in Tokyo will be J2 champions Vegalta Sendai, who stunned J1 and Nabisco Cup runners-up Kawasaki Frontale with a 2-1 victory after extra time. Yuki Nakashima’s 36th-minute strike looked to have won it for Sendai until Kazuhiro Murakami equalised in second half stoppage time, but a Tomoyuki Hirase header on 108 minutes was enough to add Frontale to a list of Vegalta victims that includes Omiya Ardija and FC Tokyo.
J2’s other representatives, FC Gifu, were the victims of a Joshua Kennedy hat-trick as Nagoya Grampus cruised to a comfortable 3-0 win at the Mizuho Athletic Stadium. Grampus will now travel to the Shizuoka Stadium to face Shimizu S-Pulse, who eventually came out on top following a five-goal thriller at home to Albirex Niigata.
A Toshihiro Matsushita penalty for the visitors cancelled out Shinji Okazaki’s early opener, but S-Pulse thought they had done enough when Frode Johnsen put them back in front with just four minutes remaining. They were pegged back when an even later strike from Kisho Yano took the game to extra time, but Arata Kodama’s scrambled winner at the end of the first additional period keeps alive Shimizu’s hopes of a first Emperor’s Cup title since 2001.
Both semi-finals will be played on 29 December, with the final in Tokyo on New Year’s Day.
Emperor’s Cup quarter-final results
Kashima Antlers 1-2 Gamba Osaka
Vegalta Sendai 2-1 Kawasaki Frontale (after extra time)
Nagoya Grampus 3-0 FC Gifu
Shimizu S-Pulse 3-2 Albirex Niigata
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