Shunsuke Nakamura netted a trademark free-kick as Yokohama F.Marinos stunned Gamba Osaka 2-1 at Suita City Football Stadium in MEIJI YASUDA J1 League action on Saturday.

The visitors’ feat was greater given the 2014 champions roared into the lead when Patric nodded down a deep cross for Ademilson to volley home past two players and Hiroki Ikura.

But Gamba’s opener failed to set the tone for the match as F.Marinos threatened repeatedly before finding the equaliser through Nakamura, who fired his free-kick into the top right corner of Masaaki Higashiguchi in the 40th minute. 

Erick Mombaerts’ men managed to combine for a winner as spectacular when a Gamba corner was cleared, before Manabu Saito embarked on a barnstorming run up the other end of the pitch.

The winger combined beautifully with Martinus before slotting through the Brazilian to go one on one with Higashiguchi, with the former not hesitating as he slotted in the clincher crisply into the corner of the net.

FC Tokyo capitalised earlier in the day to leapfrog Kenta Hasegawa’s side in the table, defeating Nagoya Grampus 3-2 in an encounter that saw Masato Morishige net a brace.

The defender was called upon to find an equaliser after Akira Takeuchi found the opener for Grampus from a corner, getting up the other end in the 40th minute to win a penalty before converting it himself.

Sota Hirayama then put Tokyo in the lead with a cool finish into the bottom left corner of the net, but Kensuke Nagai towered over the capital side’s defence six minutes later to bring matters to 2-2.

With the scores level, the deadlock was left to Morishige to break as the centre-back rose highest at Ryoya Ogawa’s corner to thump home the winning header.

The Ajinomoto Stadium outfit closed to within a single point of Kashima Antlers in the table after they were unable to hold onto the lead at Kawasaki Frontale, being pegged back 1-1 by Elsinho’s equaliser after Caio had opened the scoring.

Promoted outfits Omiya Ardija and Jubilo Iwata produced a 1-1 draw in which the 2015 MEIJI YASUDA J2 League winners had to come back from behind in, while Sagan Tosu were held to a similar scoreline by Kashiwa Reysol.

Albirex Niigata were meanwhile able to claim their second win of the season when Tatsuya Tanaka fired home to them all three points in the 41st minute of a 1-0 result at Avispa Fukuoka.

Vissel Kobe impressively claimed their fourth win in all competition on Saturday as they came back to win 2-1 against Shonan Bellmare.

Nelsinho’s men started the tie inauspiciously as Daisuke Kikuchi’s left-wing cross took Kim Seung-gyu by surprise, causing the custodian to turn the ball into his own net by mistake.

However, a failed clearance by Kim’s opposite number Tomohiko Murayama three minutes laters fell to Pedro Junior, who in turn turned and fed Kazuma Watanabe to level the scores.

The visitors broke into Shonan’s box once more in the 34th minute and Leandro was on hand to turn home a scrappy winner.