A clinical Vissel Kobe claimed a 3-1 win away to Sanfrecce Hiroshima on Friday, provisionally moving up to second, three points behind J-League first-division leaders Machida Zelvia ahead of other weekend fixtures.
Yuya Osako, Rikuto Hirose and Hotaru Yamaguchi all got on the scoresheet at newly built Edion Peace Wing Hiroshima, where the holders rose to 40 points. Hiroshima's title ambitions took a hit as they remained on 34 points.
Yoshinori Muto darted past Hiroshima's defense to set up Osako's close-range effort four minutes in before the former Japan forwards combined for Kobe's opener seven minutes later. Osako's floating pass to the right found Muto, and a swift, pin-point cross was headed home by last year's J1 top scorer Osako for his sixth goal.
Hiroshima leveled quickly in the 17th minute after Pieros Sotiriou did well to hold the ball up inside the box and laid it off down the left for Shunki Higashi. His cross to the opposite wing-back Naoto Arai was deep, but a looping header into the far corner stranded Kobe keeper Daiya Maekawa.
Sotiriou came close to turning the game around, but the Cyprus forward's 35th-minute header off Mutsuki Kato's left-wing cross sailed just wide, and it was Kobe who again netted early to start a half as they retook the lead in the 52nd minute.
A deep corner was only cleared as far as Takahiro Ogihara at the edge of the box, with the midfielder's header back toward the goal flicked in past Hiroshima keeper Keisuke Osako by an unmarked Hirose, who remained onside.
"I've been playing a lot as an attacker and it took a little too long to score my first goal," said Hirose, who is registered as a defender.
Hiroshima responded with an attacking spell, but Kobe put the game to bed on a 72nd-minute counter when Osako held off his marker and released Muto on the right. An incisive pass to the middle was controlled and buried low into the corner by another former Japan international, Yamaguchi.
