Just as we saw last week, when Gamba were denied a goalscoring opportunity and a red card was given, but Gamba were stopped from converting a chance, a red card played a huge part in this game, also.

The game began well for Gamba Osaka away at the champions, with plenty of early possession and things were looking promising when it all went wrong in a couple of minutes. Firstly, against the run of play Leandro Damiao had a goal to open the scoring.. the mark of a champion, to take the lead when under pressure, perhaps? And then, Kohei Okuno was given a yellow card for a tackle about 25 yards out, which was then turned into a red by VAR, thereby ending the game as a fair spectacle. Okuno was bewildered that what seemed like an unintentional connection with his opponent, certainly with no power or malice in the challenge, would see him leave the field as early as the 7th minute.

Three goals were added before the break as the home team made their one-man advantage count but, to the credit of Gamba, they were never giving up and went looking for goals. Patric was on for Hiroto Yamami to freshen things up even before half time, but the way team found themselves 4-0 down at the break.

The 2nd half was much more even and Gamba, despite being four goals and a man down, went for goals, but were frustrated at every opportunity. Meanwhile, at the other end, Higashiguchi made a couple of saves and Yu Kobayashi hit the woodwork, but the score remained 4-0 as the final whistle was blown. Yet another example of how a single decision by the officials can influence a result.

Team - Higashiguchi, Fukuoka (Takao, 46), Miura, Shoji, Fujiharu, Yamami (Patric, 32), Saito, Okuno, Onose (Ishige, 74), Kurata (Kurokawa, 74), Minamino (Dawhan, 55)