Tournament debutant Vissel Kobe advanced to the semifinals of the Asian Champions League on penalties 7-6 after a 1-1 extra-time quarterfinal draw with South Korea's Suwon Bluewings on Thursday.
Despite playing with 10 men for 82 minutes, Suwon refused to bow, and never showed any sign of going out of the competition until Jang Ho-ik missed over the bar. Vissel's Noriaki Fujimoto then struck the back of the net at Qatar's Al Janoub Stadium to send the J. League side into the tournament's last four.
"Even though it went 90 minutes with extra time on top of that, the team really came together," said Fujimoto, who came on as a 91st-minute substitute. "Until now I haven't been contributing, so I wanted to get the job done. And I was happy to be able to execute."