2021 Japanese Super Cup

The 2021 Japanese Super Cup (known as Fuji Xerox Super Cup 2021 for sponsorship reasons) was the 28th Japanese Super Cup since its reestablishment, and the 36th overall. It was held on 20 February 2021 between the 2020 J1 League champions and Emperor's Cup winners Kawasaki Frontale and the league's (and cup) runners-up Gamba Osaka, the third league runners-up to ever qualify for the competition and the first club other than Urawa Red Diamonds to qualify in this way. It took place at the Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama, Saitama. This was the first Super Cup held after the recognition by the Guinness World Records as Fuji Xerox sponsored the competition for a world record of 27 years, the longest sponsorship of a football super cup.

2021 Japanese Super Cup

Kawasaki Frontale Gamba Osaka 3 2
Date	20 February 2021
Venue	Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama
Referee	Yusuke Araki
Attendance	4,208
Weather	Fine 17 °C (63 °F) 31% humidity

This was Frontale's third Super Cup appearance overall, all in the previous four years; they only failed to qualify in 2020 and won once in 2019. At the other hand, this was Gamba's seventh Super Cup appearance and their first since 2016, winning twice (in 2007 and 2015).

Frontale took a 2–0 lead from Kaoru Mitoma in the first half before being equalized in the second half. On the last minute of the second half additional time, substitute Yu Kobayashi scored the winner for the double winners and earned them their second Super Cup title. Gamba extended their trophy drought, its most recent title was the 2015 Emperor's Cup.

Match details

20 February 2021

13:35 JST

Kawasaki Frontale	3–2	Gamba Osaka
Mitoma 29', 33' Kobayashi 90+6'	Report	Yajima 60' Patric 67' (pen.)

Saitama Stadium 2002, Saitama

Attendance: 4,208

Referee: Yusuke Araki

Kawasaki Frontale

Gamba Osaka

GK 1 Jung Sung-ryong RB 13 Miki Yamane CB 4 Jesiel CB 5 Shogo Taniguchi (c) LB 47 Reo Hatate DM 6 João Schmidt  64' CM 25 Ao Tanaka CM 8 Yasuto Wakizaka  64' RF 41 Akihiro Ienaga  83' CF 9 Leandro Damião  72' LF 18 Kaoru Mitoma  72' Substitutes: GK 27 Kenta Tanno DF 7 Shintaro Kurumaya  90+1' MF 3 Koki Tsukagawa  64'  90+1' MF 16 Tatsuya Hasegawa  72' MF 22 Kento Tachibanada  64' FW 11 Yu Kobayashi  72' FW 19 Daiya Tono  83' Manager: Toru Oniki

GK 1 Masaaki Higashiguchi RB 8 Kosuke Onose CB 5 Genta Miura (c) CB 13 Shunya Suganuma LB 4 Hiroki Fujiharu DM 29 Yuki Yamamoto CM 15 Yosuke Ideguchi CM 10 Shu Kurata  90' RF 21 Shinya Yajima  69' CF 18 Patric  81' LF 34 Shuhei Kawasaki  69' Substitutes: GK 22 Jun Ichimori DF 3 Gen Shoji DF 27 Ryu Takao  90' MF 6 Ju Se-jong FW 9 Leandro Pereira  69' FW 20 Kazunari Ichimi  81' FW 32 Tiago Alves  69' Head coach: Tsuneyasu Miyamoto

Assistant referees: Yusuke Hamamoto Kota Watanabe Fourth official: Futoshi Nakamura Video assistant referee: Hiroyuki Kimura Assistant video assistant referee: Osamu Nomura

Match rules 90 minutes. Penalty shoot-out if scores still level. Seven named substitutes. Maximum of five substitutions, and a maximum of two additional permanent concussion substitutions.