SAITAMA - Recently-crowned J.League champions Urawa Reds kept alive their hopes of a double after defeating Jubilo Iwata in a 10-9 in marathon penalty shootout to advance to the Emperor's Cup semi-finals.

The Reds went into the quarter-final clash without a host of regulars including J.League MVP winning defender Marcus Tulio Tanaka, top scorer Washington and Salzburg-bound winger Alessandro Santos and their lack of strength told as Jubilo took a 2-0 lead thanks to goals from Ryoichi Maeda (32) and Takashi Fukunishi (47).

However, the introduction of former Shinji Ono inspired Urawa's fight back as the Feyenoord forward headed home the equaliser nine minutes after Yuichiro Nagai had reduced the deficit in the 55th minute.

With nine minutes left to play Ono put Urawa ahead only for Yusuke Inuzuka to level the match barely a minute later.

Inuzuka went from hero to villain in the shootout after the young right-back fired the 20th spot-kick wide of the mark after every other player had scored although the Reds were fortunate the referee Masayoshi Okada order a retake after deeming that Iwata keeper Yohei Sato had moved too soon before saving from Tomoyuki Sakai.

Urawa next meet Kashima Antlers in the semi-final on December 29 after the Ibaraki side rallied to defeat Shimizu S-Pulse 3-2, the same score line when they beat the Shizuoka side to win the 2000 Emperor's Cup.

Gamba Osaka's hopes of a return to the AFC Champions League continued as the 2005 J.League champions defeated Yokohama F Marinos 3-1 in Kobe to set up a final four meeting with Consadole Sapporo after the J2 side saw off Ventforet Kofu 2-0 in Sendai.