Vissel Kobe booked their place in the semi-finals of the AFC Champions League Elite 2025/26 on Thursday night (Friday morning, Japan time), coming from two goals down to draw their quarter-final with Al Sadd SC 3-3 before emerging triumphant on penalties.
Kobe fell behind in just the sixth minute at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal Sports City Stadium, when Akram Afif fed a pass in to Rafa Mujica and he slotted into the bottom corner from the edge of the area.
The MEIJI YASUDA J1 100 YEAR VISION LEAGUE side responded well to that setback and were back on level terms 18 minutes later though, as Yuya Osako confidently headed in a cross from the right by Gotoku Sakai.
Osako went agonisingly close to giving Kobe the lead in the 34th minute when he thumped another header onto the crossbar, with Yuta Goke poking the rebound over from close range.
Sixteen minutes into the second half Kobe found themselves once again trailing, as Claudinho dinked a ball into the area, Roberto Firmino chested it into the path of Mujica, and he made no mistake with a controlled volley.
The roles were reversed as Al Sadd added a third in the 65th minute, when Mujica broke in behind on the left and dinked a ball across goal for Roberto Firmino to tuck in at the back post.
Kobe refused to be beaten though, and in the 74th minute Yosuke Ideguchi pulled a goal back for Michael Skibbe’s side, sweeping in at the near post after some nice interplay between Katsuya Nagato and substitute Jean Patric.
That set the stage for Yoshinori Muto to dramatically send the game to extra-time in the third minute of stoppage time, as he powerfully headed home Rikuto Hirose’s cross.
Despite both creating several chances, neither team were able to add to the scoring in the additional 30 minutes, meaning the contest went to a penalty shoot-out.
Once there Claudinho missed Al Sadd’s third attempt, and with all of Kobe’s kickers successful from the spot they were able to celebrate their place in the semi-finals, where they will take on either defending champions Al Ahli Saudi FC or Johor Darul Ta’zim.
