Kashiwa Reysol edged Chonburi FC 3-2 in extra time in a third-round playoff match in the qualifying round of the 2015 AFC Champions League at Hitachi Kashiwa Soccer Stadium on 17 February and booked a spot in the ACL.

With the outcome, Kashiwa was slated in Group E in the tournament's group stage, which will begin next week, and will play against Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (Korea Republic), Shandong Luneng (China), Binh Duong (Vietnam) with a home-and-away format. Kashiwa will take on Hyundai on the 24th away.

In the game against Chonburi FC, Kashiwa struck first as midfielder Taketomi Kosuke put a rebound of a shot made by midfielder Otani Hidekazu, but Chonburi FC quickly tied it with a goal by forward Assumpcao, who reacted to a long pass.

Kashiwa overwhelmed their opponents creating 20 shots in the first half and 15 in the second around defender Wako Naoki, forwards Cristiano, Leandro and Otani, but Chonburi FC, who were vying for making the main tournament for the first time since 2012, protected their own goal with their physical defensive effort.

Kashiwa retrieve a lead with a penalty kick of Leandro on 13th, but six minutes later, forward Kroekrit, who received a pass from Assumpcao, netted an equalizer.

For Reysol, midfielder Ota Tetsuro, a late substitute, threatened the Chonburi goal with his aggressive plays, but both teams weren't able to add any more goals and entered extra minutes. Kashiwa sent defender Yamanaka Ryosuke in the first half and forward Otsu Yuki in the second half of extra minutes into the pitch and thickened their offence.

On 10th into extra minutes, Leandro headed a corner kick of Ota for his second goal of the day for the game winner. It was the first victory in an official game for head coach Yoshida Tatsuma.

Meanwhile, Chonburi FC had beaten Ketchee (Hong Kong) 4-1 in the second round of the qualifying round, but ended up being eliminated in a playoff for the second straight year.

The number of teams from one country has been changed from four to 3.5 in the AFC this year, and J1 and Emperor's Cup winner Gamba Osaka, J1 runner-ups Urawa Reds and J1's third-place Kashima Antlers will represent Japan and compete for the summit of Asia. Kashiwa finished fourth in J1 while Gamba won both the J1 and Emperor's Cup titles, so they obtained a spot in the playoff match.

Head Coach and Players Comments

YOSHIDA Tatsuma, Head Coach(Kashiwa Reysol)
Rather than I'm happy, I feel relieved. It was as hard as we'd expected it would be, but we didn't expect to give up a goal. Yet now we can move forward and it's meaningful that we won it and can reflect on what we did. Regarding the goals given up, our lack of preparation exposed, more than we lacked concentration. We had four weeks of preparation, but we didn't play many 90-minute practice games and wanted to have two more weeks or so. To take advantage in extra minutes, we played the first 90 minutes, preserving a pair of our substitution spots. As to the ACL, the format will be different from this one-and-done playoff, so it's important to be able to switch your mind-set, and I told our players that now we are headed to South Korea. I think that we are ready for it.

FW   Leandro(Kashiwa Reysol)
Partially because it was our first game of the year, it was a difficult game for us, but I think how we've practiced since last summer for this playoff game paid off. More than I feel happy to have scored twice, I missed some others that I could've made and want to practice so I can make them in our next one.

FW   KUDO Masato(Kashiwa Reysol)
It's nothing special for Reysol to cinch the finals, and we feel like we've finally stood on the start line. I take it positively to have been able to create so many chances. Now I will need composure to put them into the goal. I still have a lot of things I need to reflect on, but it was only the first game of the year, so it will come down to how we'll do from this point on. I don't particularly feel the schedule is too tight with the ACL in it. I feel like I want to play in the next game quicker, and I'm looking forward to our next one.

FW   OTSU Yuki(Kashiwa Reysol)
As we've accumulated practices, we've become a better team and it was huge for us to finish the game ahead of our opponents today. Because there were spaces on the sides, I tried to use them once I'd get on the pitch. (On returning to Kashiwa for the first time in three years) I was thrilled to play on this pitch for the first time in a while, and it was great that we won. No matter who we play against, we would like to think of beating them and hopefully we will correct what we need to correct and can finish our next game ahead of our opponents.

Jadet Meelarp, Head Coach(Chonburi FC)
Besides we had to play against such a high-level team like Kashiwa, we had to deal with the coldness and it gave us a hard time to play today, but our played showed fighting spirits and brought the contest into extra minutes. I think they did a good job. Yet the temperature of Thailand of this time of a year is like 33 degrees and because of this cold weather our players weren't able to run as much towards the end. Two of the goals we gave up were from set-plays. Missing Surawich Logarwit (No. 36) particularly hurt when it came down to the corner kick. Also, we didn't have sufficient concentration, so if we are able to challenge on the ACL once more, then we would like to maintain our concentration until the very end.

AFC Champions League 2015
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