The AFC Champions League (ACL) entered the first day of its round 5 on Tuesday 19 April as Gamba Osaka, who reached the last four last year, went down 2-1 to Suwon Samsung Bluewings FC (Korea Republic), resulting in two draws and three losses in total. The Osaka side were eliminated from the tournament in the bottom of the Group G table with one match left.

Gamba Osaka, who have struggled in the league with no win, attempted to keep their hope alive for the Round 16 by winning against third-placed Suwon Samsung, who were one point ahead. But Suwon were also on the verge of the elimination and dominated the Japanese side with aggressive moves from the start.

With defender NIWA Daiki coming back from injury, Gamba Osaka defence held on to the opponents, who attacked with midfielders YEOM Ki Hun and KWON Changhoon. Even though Gamba got back the balls, they weren't able to show their trademark of ball movement and break through the opponents, who created a defensive block to maintain the balance of defence.

Yet in the 35th minute, Niwa was brought down by an opponent after running up into the box, earning a penalty kick. USAMI Takashi took the ball, and his right-footed shot was denied by goalkeeper NO Donggeon. But the referee made a call that the goalkeeper moved forward before the shot and allowed Usami to retake. His shot was, however, again stopped by No.

Then after both teams did not find any goal-scoring opportunity and finished the first half 0-0, Suwon went aggressive from the start of the second half and finally opened the scoring in the 49th minute. After Yeom and KIM Gunhee connected crisp passes on the left flank, forward SANTOS netted the ball at the end. 

Suwon picked up the momentum with the goal and kept attacking deep with passes. In the 56th minute, Suwon's pass hit Gamba midfielder KONNO Yasuyuki's hand on the end of the box and the Korean side got a penalty kick. After one minute, Santos converted the spot kick for a 2-0 lead.

With Gamba forward Patrick and midfielder KURATA Shu coming off the bench, Gamba started to keep the ball and created more opportunities close to goal.

In the 63rd minute, midfielder FUJIMOTO Jungo's header from midfielder ENDO Yasuhito's right cross was denied by the goalkeeper. Then 10 minutes later, Usami headed a right cross, which went just inches wide. In the 89th minute, Fujimoto fired a direct free kick, but again No punched the ball out.

One minute later, after a corner kick, Patrick connected a clearance in front of goal before Konno volleyed it in with his right foot to close the gap to one goal. But Gamba were not able to score after that and failed to grab the much-wanted victory.

See more match details (Japanese version only)

As a result, Gamba have no win after five matches with two points. On the other hand, Suwon clinched the first win and increased the points to six with one win, one loss and three draws, levelling with Melbourne Victory (Australia), who lost to Shanghai SIPG (China) 3-1. Shanghai sealed the top spot for the next round with four wins and one loss (12 points).

F.C. Tokyo, Sanfrecce Hiroshima and Urawa Reds will play on 20 April.

Coach and Players' Comments

HASEGAWA Kenta, Coach (Gamba Osaka) 
I feel very bad that we got eliminated in the group stage, while our supporters came to stadium expecting to see us win. My players knew how important today’s match was, but in the first half we couldn’t take the initiative of the match. After allowing two goals, we finally started playing our style of passing football. I think my players were having that much of pressure on their shoulders, but I as the coach of team am responsible for this outcome.

We showed our guts in the end and scored one goal. We have got to carry that emotion over to our next match. Usami looked taking the responsibility, but it’s not on him. Recently I am feeling the importance of one goal so badly. How we defend the one-goal lead or how we score that one goal, we have to keep analysing as a team. Otherwise we can’t come back up even in the J.League. We want to reset our mindset and keep battling through our league. And we also want to show our emotions and pride at the rest of the ACL match on the road. We want to make sure that we keep fighting.

DF  NIWA Daiki (Gamba Osaka)
It’s disappointing that we lose in the group stage, but we have to accept this reality without looking away because it’s the result of what we have done. The biggest reason for this is that fact that we couldn’t play our style of football. Failing to convert two penalty kicks made us realise that football isn’t so easy, and I think this current situation is testing Gamba Osaka. We have to remember this disappointment throughout this year. The last thing we want to do is to lose our sight on our style of football now, so we want to try again without losing our focus. 

DF  FUJIHARU Hiroki (Gamba Osaka)
We can’t go up unless we score when we need to score. Speaking of the penalty kicks, they are just what happened and we can’t change them now. We had other chances to score the opening goal in the first half. There is no point in us staying down, so we can only reset our minds and do what we have to do for our future matches. We want to keep fighting through J.League with our best form physically and mentally. 

SEO Jung Won (Suwon Samsung Bluewings FC)
We knew that Gamba have many good players. We had analysed their recent matches and today tried to stop Usami and Endo from passing the ball and eliminate their initiating the offence. We tried to stop them from showing their strength. In our recent K League match, we rested six or seven players, so that worked out in our favour physically. I am thankful to my players for saving ourselves the possibility to advance to the Round 16.

AFC Champions League 2016

27 January 2016 - 26 November 2016

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