Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Niigata: AFC Champions League quarter-finalists Gamba Osaka had to settle for a share of the spoils once again in the second stage of the J.League after the reigning Japanese champions let slip a 2-1 lead to draw 2-2 at Albirex Niigata on Wednesday.
The home side were gifted a tenth minute lead when Gamba defender Daiki Niwa, who was recently selected for Japan’s 2015 EAFF (East Asian Football Federation) Cup squad, scored an own goal before Koki Yonekura, another of Samurai Blue boss Vahid Halilhodzic’s recent call ups, spared his fellow defender’s blushes with the equaliser two minutes after the interval.
Skipper Yasuhito Endo put the 2014 Japanese treble winners 2-1 up when the 2009 AFC Player of the Year successfully converted a 54th minute penalty but again Gamba’s inability to protect a lead resurfaced.
Hiroshi Ibusuki, who was in the youth rank’s of Gamba’s fellow ACL quarter-final contenders Kashiwa Reysol before spending a number of year’s in Spain’s lower leagues prior to a return to Japan in 2014, drew Niigata level on the hour mark.
The draw, Gamba’s third in six matches, saw the 2008 ACL champions, slip from third to fifth in the J.League second-stage standings with nine points, a total they share with Kashiwa who dropped from second to sixth following their 3-0 loss to Shonan Bellmare on Wednesday.
Gamba continue their quest for a second AFC Champions League tile next month when the 2008 winners face fellow former champions Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the last eight of this season’s ACL.
The 2014 J.League treble winners travel to the Korea Republic for the first-leg of their quarter-final clash with the 2006 winners on August 26 before Gamba host the return fixture on September 16.
Photo: WSG