The opening 30 minutes resembled a chess-like affair with little goalmouth action as both teams matched each other well.

Sanfrecce stepped up another gear after that with three attempts in the space of four minutes - a Hayato Araki header, Hayao Kawabe curler and a Mutsuki Kato volley that were all safely handled by Gangwon custodian Park Chung-hyo.

Gangwon produced their first opening in the 43rd minute when Kim Dae-won burst down the right flank but saw his cutback scuffed by Kim Kang-guk as the ball rolled harmlessly wide leaving the tie still in the balance at the break.

The introduction of Ryo Germain at the start of the second half breathed new life into Sanfrecce’s attack, the 30-year-old wriggled away from his marker in the 49th minute before threading a through ball for Kato whose shot went agonisingly wide.

An incredible sequence of play in the 63rd minute saw Sanfrecce breaking the deadlock, Kato intercepted Park Ho-young’s backpass then rounded the goalkeeper but his shot was blocked by Shin Min-ha with Germain’s follow-up palmed away by Chung-hyo before Kato tucked home the second rebound.

Sanfrecce’s joy, however, was tempered seven minutes later when they went down to 10 men after captain Sho Sasaki was shown a second yellow card for a dangerous lunge on Kim Gun-hee but they staved off Gangwon’s advances to seal the win.

Sanfrecce will next meet Chengdu Rongcheng FC of China PR away while Gangwon have a home tie against Japan’s FC Machida Zelvia, with both matches to be played on November 25.