Urawa Red Diamonds vs Vissel Kobe
How the goals came
23' Takuya Aoki opens the scoring for Urawa Red Diamonds (the winner) → 42' Shinzo Koroki extends Urawa Red Diamonds's lead → 53' Yuki Muto extends Urawa Red Diamonds's lead → 76' Kazuki Nagasawa extends Urawa Red Diamonds's lead. Full time: 4-0, Urawa Red Diamonds win.
The match, goal by goal
2 of the 4 goals came after half-time.
23' Takuya Aoki (Urawa Red Diamonds) 1-0
With the match still goalless, Takuya Aoki opened the scoring for Urawa Red Diamonds in the 23rd minute. Playing at home at Saitama Stadium 2002, Urawa never surrendered the lead after that strike and went on to win 4-0, making it the decisive goal of the night. For Vissel Kobe, it marked the start of a match spent chasing the score.
42' Shinzo Koroki (Urawa Red Diamonds) 2-0
Three minutes before the interval, Shinzo Koroki doubled the lead for Urawa Red Diamonds to make it 2-0. Coming 19 minutes after Aoki's opener, the goal meant the hosts carried a two-goal cushion into the break. Vissel Kobe went to the dressing room without a reply.
53' Yuki Muto (Urawa Red Diamonds) 3-0
Eight minutes into the second half, in the 53rd minute, Yuki Muto made it 3-0. Urawa Red Diamonds had come out of the break leading 2-0 and struck again almost immediately, leaving Vissel Kobe needing three goals simply to draw level. The contest was effectively settled from that point.
76' Kazuki Nagasawa (Urawa Red Diamonds) 4-0
The fourth goal arrived in the 76th minute through Kazuki Nagasawa. He became the fourth different scorer of the evening for Urawa Red Diamonds, pushing the score to 4-0. Nothing further was added, and the hosts closed out a clean-sheet win over Vissel Kobe in front of 55,689 spectators at Saitama Stadium 2002.
