Unfashionable Cerezo Osaka stunned city rivals and 2008 winners Gamba with a dramatic late winner on Tuesday to reach the AFC Champions League quarter-finals alongside Jeonbuk Motors.
Cerezo’s Daisuke Takahashi struck two minutes from time to settle a tense derby at Expo ‘70 Stadium and send one half of Osaka into raptures as their rags-to-riches team reached the last eight on debut.
Cerezo’s win extends a fairytale run for the Japanese club who were only promoted to the J-League’s top flight in 2009 but finished third in their rookie season last year.
And it could not have been sweeter for Cerezo to dispatch Gamba, a leading light of Japanese football who have a clutch of domestic silverware but have not gone past Asia’s last 16 since their 2008 title run.
The decisive moment came when Korean Kim Bo-Kyung found Takahashi on the edge of the box and the midfielder struck an angled shot past Gamba ‘keeper Yosuke Fujigaya.
“Everybody’s strong feeling allowed us to score the goal. I didn’t hesitate, because I had been determined to hit a shot,” said goal hero Takahashi, adding that beating Gamba made the victory extra-sweet.
“In the past, Gamba were famous as Osaka’s club, so I wanted to change the image.”
Brazilian coach Levir Culpi said Cerezo had “turned the tables” on Gamba as they qualified for the marathon championship’s two-legged quarter-finals in September.
“It was a dramatic victory. I want to praise my players and our supporters. They had a strong will to win. That resulted in this victory,” he said.
“Gamba have been working under the wing of (coach Akira) Nishino for almost 10 years and it’s not easy to beat them. But my players turned the tables.”
“We are determined to make history without being satisfied with today’s result. We will be ready for the quarter-finals in September,” Culpi added.
Meanwhile 2006 champions Jeonbuk of South Korea enjoyed a ruthless 3-0 win over Tianjin Teda, which snuffed out Chinese interest in the competition.
