Asian champions Gamba Osaka beat familiar foes Adelaide United 1-0 on Sunday to set up a dream semifinal date with European champions Manchester United at the Club World Cup.
Yasuhito Endo wrecked Adelaide's hopes of avenging their 5-0 aggregate loss in last month's Asian Champions League final with the only goal of the game to send the Japanese side into Thursday's semi in Yokohama.
"It was a winner-take-all game and we looked for a bit of variation in the way we attacked and we were able to control the game well," said Gamba manager Akira Nishino.
"We have taken a fair bit of damage from tonight's game and hopefully we will be able to recover from that and prepare well (for the semi)," he added.