Thu, 28 Oct, 2021
Osaka: Coach Choi Kang-hee admitted Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors’ injury time elimination from the AFC Champions League quarter-finals on Wednesday “was disappointing in so many ways” after Koki Yonekura’s 93rd minute strike took Japan’s Gamba Osaka through to the semi-finals after a claiming hugely entertaining 3-2 win at Expo ’70 Commemorative Stadium.
Having shared a goalless stalemate at Jeonju World Cup Stadium last month, K-League Clssic champions Jeonbuk got off to the perfect start in Osaka as Leonardo rifled home a 13th minute spot-kick which put the onus on their hosts to score twice due to the away goals rule.
However, Brazilian Patric netted from close range just a minute later to make the scores level on the night and then Shu Kurata added a long range second after 76 minutes for 2008 winners Gamba.
Substitute Urko Vera then looked like he had put Choi’s side into the semi-finals for the first time reaching the 2011 final with two minutes remaining, only for Yonekura to break Jeonbuk hearts with a last-gasp winner deep into stoppage time.
ACL QF 2nd Leg: Gamba Osaka 3-2 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors (3-2 agg.)
“Ending our AFC Champions League campaign in this way was disappointing in so many ways,” said Choi, who guided Jeonbuk to the 2006 title as well as the 2011 final.
“Not winning in the home leg hurt us somewhat, but I think allowing Gamba to equalise so quickly after we scored the first goal changed the outcome of the match.
“We spent so much time and hard work into this campaign and it hurts. I’m not disappointed in the players’ efforts, but the ending was surely disappointing.”
In the first leg in Jeonju, Jeonbuk had very effectively deployed full-back Choi Chul-soon as a defensive midfielder to neutralise Gamba’s leading scorer Takashi Usami and, despite the forward’s absence in the return meeting through suspension, Choi went with the same tactic in Osaka.
“They didn’t have Usami, but his replacement Kurata we knew was also good, too, so we thought to put Choi Chul-soon there again in the same position and do the same job, but it didn’t work as effectively,” added Choi.
“Overall, our players were a bit slow and their condition wasn’t as good as expected. We also had to overcome the less than ideal conditions after the rain. It’s not an excuse, though, us allowing so many goals to be conceded, that was really bad.
“In football, it’s hard to execute your game plan 100% and it happened to be that we simply didn’t execute it at the worst possible time.”