Gamba Osaka were looking to add to their impressive midweek win over Sanfrecce Hiroshima with another three points against Urawa Reds, and came so close to doing it, only a late penalty kick saw them undeservedly drop from a victory to a draw.

For this game midfield dynamo Dawhan was rested at the start, though did come in just before the hour mark, while Gamba stayed with a back three formation. Isa Sakamoto got another start up front after notching his first goal in the week.

Again the home side began encouragingly, with Kosuke Onose stinging the 'keeper's hands after just 150 seconds and then the same player saw his shot cleared off the line with the helpless goalkeeper looking on, in the 9th minute. Sakamoto then forced a save - low down to his right - from the busy Shusaku Nishikawa in the Urawa Reds goal as Gamba continued to run the game their way and look for that opening goal. That opening goal did come in the 33rd minute as Masaaki Higashiguchi rolled out a quick ball to Sakamoto on the edge of his own area. Sakamoto sprinted 50 yards before slipping the ball to Hideki Ishige on the left. Ishige in turn sent over a deep cross for Mitsuki Saito to control and rifle home for a well-worked, and well-deserved goal.

Minutes later Gamba had passed their way into space and Shu Kurata finished off a superb move to seemingly give Gamba a 2-0 lead but the VAR officials had seen an offside in the build-up and the score remained 1-0 at the break.

The 2nd half continued to be Gamba's game played at Gamba's pace with Reds being limited to long distance attempts and looking nowhere near scoring, until substitute Yusuke Matsuo was seemingly caught by the boot of Genta Miura as he slid in to block a cross. A harsh decision saw a penalty kick and Urawa Reds gained an unlikely point through the PK converted by Alexander Scholz.

Team - Higashiguchi, Fukuoka (Shoji, 71), Miura, Kwon, Onose, Saito, Okuno (Dawhan, 59), Kurokawa (Fujiharu, 59), Kurata (Takao, 71), Ishige, Sakamoto (Patric, 79)

Scorer:
Mitsuki SAITO 33'

Attendance 18,741