Guinean international Kante was full of admiration for the work Urawa displayed under wet conditions at the Saitama Stadium.

“We played a very good game, everybody could see that we were hungry for goals and it was nice to score this amount of goals because we have been struggling a little bit even though we created a lot of chances in the last game,” said Kante, reacted quickly to slot the rebound home after his 70th minute penalty kick had been saved.

“So it's nice to finally score a few goals and the set-pieces were working for us, it's very important for us. Hence we are very happy and positive with this result.

“I was looking forward to this game because I can’t play in the next league game so this was an opportunity to keep my fitness. Luckily, I was able to score and feel good on the pitch, and connect with the players,” said Kante, who also scored in the draw with Wuhan Three Towns. 

Up next is the crunch match against Group J leaders Pohang Steelers of Korea Republic on October 24 and Urawa will be hoping for another fine performance in their bid for a record-extending fourth AFC Champions League title.