It took the home side until the 12th minute to carve out the first clear-cut opening, Hwang In-jae diving to his right to push away a Matheus’ shot that was destined for the bottom corner.

Marinos were in the ascendancy without consistently finding a way through the disciplined Pohang defence and Ryuta Koike’s strike that flew high over the bar in the 26th minute summed up their difficulties.

Moments later, though, Koike looked like he had set up Takuma Nishimura to open the scoring, only for the forward to drag his shot wide of Hwang’s right post with the goalkeeper unable to react.

Koike was at the heart of another incisive move as Marinos increased the pressure, releasing Nishimura down the left to deliver a first time ball into the six-yard box that Lopes steered into Hwang’s hands.

Hwang continued to frustrate Marinos, diving to his right to touch another Matheus effort wide while Lopes headed into his arms when he was given time and space in the 40th minute.

It was a mistake from Hwang, however, that set the Japanese side up to open the scoring. The goalkeeper’s clearance landed at the feet of Matsubara and, after he fed Lopes, the Brazilian picked out Matheus to roll the ball home from seven yards out.

A sliding Lopes was inches away from adding a second as he just missed making contact with Nishimura’s pass as it flew across the face of goal on the hour mark while Paik Sung-dong pulled his attempt well wide in a rare move forward by the side from Korea Republic.

Hwang denied Lopes with his legs and Matsubara fired over the bar from the resulting corner and, with eight minutes remaining, the goalkeeper frustrated Lopes with a point-blank save.

Marinos added a deserved second deep into injury time from the penalty spot as Lopes beat Hwang after Matsubara had been brought down in the area by Lee Dong-hyeop while Hiroki Iikura saved Kim Myeong-jun’s late penalty to deny Pohang a consolation.