Football: Gamba beat Seoul to book quarter-final place

TOKYO - Gamba Osaka of Japan booked their place in the quarter-finals of the AFC Champions League on Wednesday after beating South Korea's FC Seoul 3-2 to complete a comprehensive 6-3 aggregate victory.

The Japanese treble winners led 3-1 from the first leg of the Round of 16 tie. They extended their advantage at Expo '70 Stadium with first-half goals by Patric and Shu Kurata as Mauricio Molina missed a penalty for the visitors.

Substitute Lins added a late goal for the hosts, who are into the last eight for the first time since 2008 when they won the competition. Yun Ju-Tae's brace of goals proved to be little consolation for the Korean side.

Takashi Usami had scored twice in Gamba's victory in Seoul and the forward played a key role in the opening goal in Osaka, drawing several defenders to him before dinking over a cross for Patric to head home.

FC Seoul did much of the attacking, but Molina squandered a glorious chance to get his side back into the contest when the Colombian dragged a penalty kick wide three minutes before half-time.

That miss proved even more crucial when Gamba struck again in the final minute of the first half, as Usami nipped in to tackle Kim Dong-Woo and Kurata gratefully slammed home the loose ball.

Yun gave 2013 runners-up Seoul a glimmer of hope when he turned in Shim Je-Hyuk's cross in the 58th minute However, Lins put the game to bed by heading in Hiroko Fujiharu's cross four minutes from time before Yun grabbed his second of the game in stoppage time for the visitors.