On Wednesday 22 August, the round of 16 of the Emperor's Cup JFA 98th Japan Football Championship took place as Sagan Tosu (J1) and Vissel Kobe (J1) squared off at Best Amenity Stadium.

The match attracted 17,361 fans and supporters on a weekday night, as the highly anticipated match featured the potential to see Tosu’s Fernando TORRES and Kobe’s Andrés INIESTA clash for the first time.

In the league match Tosu currently ranks 16th while Kobe sits in 4th place, leaving a contrary impression in their team form. The match in fact reflected their rankings as Kobe showed their dominance in ball possession during the early minutes of the match. In the 25th minute, Lukas PODOLSKI delivered a lobbing pass to GOKE Yuta who laid the ball down to allow WELLINGTON to strike a shot, but his attempt went over the cross bar. Despite creating numerous opportunities, Kobe struggled to find the net.

Tosu on the other hand, defended well to deny Kobe from scoring a goal while anticipating for their opportunity as they showcased great transitions between offence and defence. Their opportunity came in the 37th minute, when TAKAHASHI Hideto intercepted a pass to initiate a fast break, as he sent the ball to FUKUDA Akito in the left side. The ball was then passed to MITSUMARU Hiromu who made a great overlap before sending a cross to the centre, which induced an own goal from Kobe’s WATANABE Hirofumi, giving Tosu the one goal lead at halftime.

With momentum on their side, Tosu showed great aggression to start the second half. In the 47th minute, ANZAI Kazuki struck a left footed shot from a free kick, followed by TOYODA Yohei’s attempt to convert a cross delivered by Mitsumaru. Their second goal came in the 50th minute when TAKAHASHI Yoshiki delivered a long ball to allow Anzai to break through, who converted the opportunity with his left foot.

Trailing by two goals, Kobe brought in Iniesta in the 56th minute. Iniesta left an instant impact as he created opportunities with his skilful passes as he delivered a pass to OTSUKI Shuhei in the 60th minute, followed by a series of passes exchanged between Podolski in the 61st minute, and the pass to allow MITA Hirotaka to take a shot in the 62nd minute.

The highly anticipated moment arrived in the 64th minute, when Torres was brought onto the pitch. The voltage of the stadium went off the charts as the former Spain National Team giants faced each other on the same pitch.

In efforts to score goals, Kobe sent in their defensive player, Ahmed YASSER in an attacking position in the 81st minute. However, the next goal was created by the Tosu side. in the 84th minute, Fukuda responded to a long feed delivered by Takahashi, before sending the final pass to Torres in front of the goal. Torres calmly converted this opportunity to score his first goal since joining the team, as well as sealing the deal of the match with the team’s third goal. Tosu went onto evade the attacks of Kobe to win the match with a final score of 3-0. With this win, Tosu will make their first quarterfinal appearance in four years.

Coaches' and Players' Comments

Massimo FICCADENTI, Coach (Sagan Tosu)
Considering how the match went, I think we performed well. We managed to showcase a rhythmical and high-quality football. It’s been a while since we played with such high pressure. Our team displayed very good build-ups with great pace. The restarts after forcing turnovers were executed with great pace as well. We definitely deserve this win. We are happy that we made it into the quarterfinals.

FW #9 Fernando TORRES (Sagan Tosu)
I am truly happy to score my first goal in front of so many supporters. (Fukuda) Akito made a great play to set up my goal, so I really thank him. I was disappointed with our loss against Nagoya, but I feel like I managed to perform well today. That is the most important thing. Akito delivered a great assist and I was able to score a goal. I hope to score goals at the J. League as well, so I will prepare myself for the next match.

YOSHIDA Takayuki, Coach (Vissel Kobe)
We played a very disappointing match. Although we dominated the ball possession in the first half, we couldn’t create any major threats. Each player was holding onto the ball too long as well. We forced our plays in offence too much and gave our opponents opportunities to initiate counter attacks, one of which allowed them to score a goal. We made adjustments in the second half with our substitutions and despite seeing a short stint of improvements, we conceded two more goals that really decided the match. Overall it was a disappointing match and we had to show more eagerness to win the match.

MF #7 MITA Hirotaka (Vissel Kobe)
We started off the match in our pace, but we seemed out of gas in the second half, maybe because of fatigue from playing consecutive matches in recent days. Once we got tired, there were some aspects that went wrong, but there were some aspects we managed to do well, despite playing with just two-days rest. I personally managed to do well in the first half to create rhythm for the team. There were many chances created while we were playing well, so if we could have capitalised on those opportunity, this match could have ended differently. We just have to reset our minds and move on.

【1st Round】Sat. 26, Sun. 27 May
【2nd Round】Wed. 6 June
【3rd Round】Wed. 11 July
【Round of 16】Wed. 22 August  (Reserve date Wed. 26 September)
【Quarterfinals】Wed. 24 October
【Semi-final】Sun. 16 December
【Final】Mon. 24 December

Tournament Information