Late substitute Kazuma Watanabe struck in the 89th minute to earn Gamba Osaka a 2-1 win over Shimizu S-Pulse in the J. League's first division on Sunday.
Watanabe broke the deadlock five minutes after Yugo Tatsuta appeared to secure a share of the points for S-Pulse by equalizing with a flying header.
Gamba defender Kosuke Onose had opened the scoring for Tsuneyasu Miyamoto's men against the run of play in the first half at IAI Stadium Nihondaira.