Nagoya Grampus and leaders Yokohama F Marinos shared the spoils Saturday with an intense 2-2 draw in the J-League first division, keeping the gap between the two title chasers at four points.
Grampus had a late goal ruled out for a tight offside call and settled for a point at Toyota Stadium. The result moved champions Marinos move up to 43 points. Second-place Vissel Kobe, who won Friday night, are on 40 points with a game in hand.
"We had chances late on, and as we had also scored the opener, it was a game we wanted to get the one last goal somehow," Nagoya manager Kenta Hasegawa said.
Kensuke Nagai opened the scoring in the eighth minute when his left-footed effort from outside the box took a big deflection off a defender and looped over the head of Marinos keeper Jun Ichimori to fly into the top corner.
Elber's 27th-minute free kick was denied by the post, but the Brazilian leveled for the visitors a minute later following a sublime ball down the middle from Ichimori. After saving a 40-meter drive from Yan Mateus, the keeper wasted no time releasing the forward, who rounded Mitch Langerak at the other end to roll home.
Joel Chima Fujita turned the game around 10 minutes from the break as the visitors' tidy build-up play found Takuma Nishimura just outside the area, with his layoff side-footed into the bottom corner by the midfielder.
But Grampus were level two minutes into the second half as a stray pass by Marinos' backline let Ryoya Morishita release Mateus down the left, with his pass through the legs of a defender tapped in by Danish striker Kasper Junker.
Mateus' rasping drive flew just wide in the 58th minute for Nagoya, who saw Ryuji Izumi fail to hit an empty net six minutes later after Nagai found the midfielder with a cross.
Marinos' former Arsenal man Ryo Miyaichi rifled a powerful 25-meter effort over the bar in the 80th minute before Mateus had his apparent winner ruled out four minutes from time, with the video assistant referee judging substitute Noriyoshi Sakai to have been just slightly offside in the buildup.
