Grampus Sneak All Three Points at Ajinomoto

A late, late Tulio header from an Alex Santos cross sees Nagoya come away with the win against the Gasmen. A closely fought game, that could easily have ended 1-1 or 2-2 looked destined to end 0-0, until the Japan international sneaked in at the death. The win sees us rise to second, and the top three teams have now opened up a gap between themselves and the chasing pack.

Grampus
Seigo Narazaki
Hayuma Tanaka, Tulio, Takahiro Masukawa, Shohei Abe
Danilson, Igor Burzanovic (Yoshizumi Ogawa 68’), Magnum (Alex Santos 82)
Mu Kanazaki, Josh Kennedy, Keiji Tamada (Keita Sugimoto 78’)

As was the case last week, the home team got off to the better start but failed to take any of a handful of decent chances when they had the upper hand. The home team got off to a quick start, with Hanyu and Morishige trying their luck in the opening minutes. However, this also set the tone for the contest, in that the Tokyoites efforts failed to fine the target or were repelled by Narazaki. Indeed, apart from a couple of optimistic efforts by Danilson, it took us over 30 minutes to get an shot on target. Sota Hirayama, proving yet again that he is too unreliable a finisher, failing to score with a couple of good chances in the meantime. We had been outplayed and outshot 11-4, but we were still in the game.

A much more even half, with the honours looking set to be shared equally. However, Tulio popped up to nod home a dramatic winner. Although had a much better half, we were still outshot 20-10 As the half progressed, we had an early chance to snatch the lead, but Kennedy sent a free header sailing wide of the post. The two teams continued to spar, without seriously looking like scoring. Hirayama for Tokyo, and Kanazaki having the best of the chances. The next big chance fell, when Danilsonsent in a screamer of a free kick that Shiota did well to tip over. Ogawa put in an encouraging display after coming on midway through the half, and had a couple of good efforts on target but did not seriously test Shiota. And thus the stage was set for Tulio’s dramatic winner, four minutes into added time. A game we could easily have lost, ended in heart-breaking fashion for the home team.