Nagoya Grampus lifted themselves out of the 2025 MEIJI YASUDA J1 LEAGUE relegation zone in dramatic style on Saturday, winning a game from behind for the first time this season as they defeated Urawa Reds 2-1.
Both sides had goals ruled out for offside in a first half of fine margins at Toyota Stadium, and Urawa head coach Maciej Skorza looked to shake things up at the break when he made a triple substitution.
Nagoya were the first to threaten in the second period though, with Ryuji Izumi volleying Shuhei Tokumoto’s deep cross just off target in the 48th minute.
Urawa then moved ahead three minutes later, as one of their half-time substitutes, Takuro Kaneko, crossed for another, Ryoma Watanabe, to head home.
From that point on Nagoya were very much in the ascendancy, and Izumi almost equalised in the 61st minute but saw his header from a corner hit the far post.
The leveller finally came from the penalty spot with seven minutes left on the clock - Sho Inagaki slamming his kick straight down the centre of Shusaku Nishikawa’s goal after Teruki Hara had been fouled by Watanabe.
Kensuke Nagai, Akinari Kawazura, and Mateus Castro all went close as Nagoya pressed for the winner, which duly came via Nagai in the third minute of injury time.
Nagai exchanged passes with Yuya Yamagishi to get into the Urawa area, and then made no mistake as he slotted clinically into the bottom corner to secure Nagoya their first win in four games.
There were also two late goals in the day’s other game, as Masaya Shibayama and Rafael Ratao both registered to earn Cerezo Osaka a 2-0 win over Avispa Fukuoka.
Rafael Ratao first threatened for C-Osaka in the 16th minute but couldn’t quite direct a header from a Hayato Okuda cross on target, and Shinji Kagawa then blazed over with his left foot from just outside the area in the 38th minute.
The closest Fukuoka came in the first half was when Yuto Iwasaki headed wide from a Shintaro Nago cross two minutes before half-time.
Kazuya Konno then drew a smart save from C-Osaka goalkeeper Koki Fukui in the 72nd minute, and seven minutes later substitute Yu Hashimoto thundered a free-kick from 25 yards against Fukui’s crossbar.
C-Osaka finally broke the deadlock in the 84th minute, when Shibayama stroked home with his left foot from the edge of the D after being played in by fellow substitute Motohiko Nakajima.
Yet another substitute thought he had salvaged a point for Fukuoka in the 90th minute, but after a VAR review Wellington’s header was ruled out for offside and eight minutes later Rafael Ratao converted Reiya Sakata’s low cross to wrap up the win for C-Osaka.
Nagoya Grampus vs. Urawa Reds - Game Highlights | 2025 J1 LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS | MW 18
Cerezo Osaka vs. Avispa Fukuoka - Game Highlights | 2025 J1 LEAGUE HIGHLIGHTS | MW 18
