J.League wrap: Sawa scores late winner

Kashiwa Reysol are top of the J.League after a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Vegalta Sendai on Saturday.

At the Kashiwa Hitachi Stadium, two of the competition’s top four sides clashed in one of the most exciting matches of the round.

But the contest failed to deliver goals, until the very last moment as Masakatsu Sawa hit a 94th minute winner for the leaders.

Yokohama F. Marinos remain a point behind Kashiwa in second after a 2-1 win at Jubilo Iwata.

Daisuke Nasu scored a 17th minute opener for the hosts, but they could not maintain that lead for long as Kazuma Watanabe struck with 10 minutes of the first half remaining to level proceedings.

Shunsuke Nakamura scored the winner six minutes into the second half from the penalty spot as Yokohama F. Marinos recorded their fourth win in a row.

In other matches, Kawasaki Frontale avoided a scare in their 3-2 home win over bottom-side Avispa Fukuoka.

Goals to Junichi Inamoto, Kengo Nakamura and Juninho looked to have given Kawasaki an easy victory but two goals in six minutes from Hideya Okamoto set up a nervous finale.

Genki Omae’s first-half injury time strike proved to be the winner in Shimizu S-Pulse’s 2-1 away win at Ventforet Kofu while Naoshi Nakamura scored with six minutes remaining to give Nagoya Grampus a 1-0 victory at Vissel Kobe.