Gamba came into this home game against high-flying Yokohama F.Marinos with a definite tactic of closing down the away team's playing out from defence, and this immediately played dividends in the 7th minute when the high press forced an errant ball from a defender back to the 'keeper that Patric was on hand to intercept, slip backwards to Dawhan, the midfield general making no mistake as he slide the ball into an empty goal. 1-0!

Gamba continued to play the game at their own pace in the early stages and Patric almost doubled the score in the 15th minute, a bullet header from a Kosuke Onose cross just too close to the 'keeper, who managed to deflect it over the bar. F.Marinos managed to get out of their half in the 20th minute and advanced quickly down the right and Leo Ceara finished the move with a shot, but the offside Elber blocked the view of Masaaki Higashiguchi in the Gamba goal and while the ball managed to find its way in it was rightly chalked off for offside.

A minute after the half hour Onose found himself in the middle channel and running onto a pass. Into the area he went and managed to get a shot off as he was crushed by two defenders. Surprisingly there was not a hint of a penalty lick or a VAR consideration, as Gamba took the game to their visitors, but it was only 1-0 at the break and not long after the restart F.Marinos drew level, Takuma Nishimimura finishing off a second ball after Higashiguchi had made the original save. 1-1, 57 minutes.

Minutes later Kota Mizunuma sneaked in behind the defence to control a crafty lob and finished with aplomb. Suddenly, after looking likely to win, Gamba were 2-1 down with half an hour to go. To their credit Gamba continued to do what was needed - look for goals - and Patric was inches away from connecting with an inswinging cross minutes after Gamba had gone behind.

In the final section of the game, Gamba continued to look for the goal that would give them the point but insult was aded to injury in the 90th minute when Kwon Kyung-won saw a second yellow card on the half way line as Kota Watanabe stumbled over. There was no argument from Kwon - more a resigned look of helplessness - but no contact was visible on replays. A harsh decision to end a game that could have been won.

Team - Higashiguchi, Takao (Yanagisawa, 58), Miura, Kwon, Fujiharu, Onose, Okuno (Saito, 58), Dawhan, Yamami (Wellington Silva, 71), Patric (Leandro Pereira, 71), Ishige (Kurata, 62)

Scorer - DAWHAN 7'

Attendance - 19,039