Sunday’s warm night at Ekimae Real State Stadium ended with a draw between Sagan Tosu and Oita Trinita. The season’s revelation team were a strong and tough opponent at home for Fernando Torres’ side, as a last-gap goal was needed to avoid back-to-back defeats in the Japanese top-flight.

Locals broke the deadlock short after the break, with a screamer from Korean wing Yong-Woo. Trinita levelled through Misao on 65’ and took the lead in the final stage with a carbón copy of the opener by Iwata. But a last-gap goal by Kanazaki Mu (90’) earned a point for locals after this eventful second half.

Fernando Torres formed on the starting line-up and played 77 minutes with a good display up front. He was replaced by Spanish winger Isaac Cuenca for the final stage of the game.


- Match stats:

Sagan Tosu: Okubo; Hara, Park, Hideto Takahashi, Kobayashi; Matsuoka, Harakawa, Fukuta (Tiago 84’), Yong-Woo (Kanamori 65’); Kanazaki, Torres (Cuenca 77’).

Oita Trinita: Takagi; Iwata, Suzuki, Misao; Puangchan (Fujimoto 60’), Hasegawa; Tanaka, Goto (Maeda 69’), Matsumoto; Onaiwu, Kazuki (Mitsuhira 79’).

Bookings: Hideto Takahashi 66’, Fujimoto 68’, Hasegawa 69’, Kanazaki (90+4’).

Goals:

1-0 (48’) Yong-Woo.
1-1 (65’) Misao.
1-2 (82’) Iwata.
2-2 (90’) Kanazaki.