Three second-half goals overturned Urawa’s half-time advantage as Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Myojin and Yasuhito Endo cancelled out Naohiro Takahara’s first-half strike for the holders.

The win gave Gamba a 4-2 aggregate victory and earned them a place in the final of the AFC Champions League for the first time, with Akira Nishino’s team due to face either Adelaide United or Kuruvchi in next month’s two-legged show-piece.

Urawa dominated throughout the opening 45 minutes but were made to pay dearly for not taking more than a one-goal advantage into the second period.

Nobuhisa Yamada fired off a long-range effort that Yosuke Fujigaya was forced to palm to safety in the 18th minute while less than a minute later Edmilson hooked wide after the ball fell at his feet following Marcus Tulio Tanaka’s challenge on the Gamba goalkeeper.

In the 21st minute Takahara cut inside the Gamba defence before firing off a shot that was deflected wide by Sota Nakazawa and, from the resulting corner, Satoshi Horinouchi forced another save from Fujigaya after being found by Yuki Abe’s overhead kick.

Reds’ pressure finally paid off with nine minutes remaining in the half when Takahara picked up the goal his impressive performance fully deserved.

The former Eintracht Frankfurt striker lifted the ball over the Gamba defence only for the ball to be headed back to his feet by Akira Kaji and his low shot found the bottom corner of Fujigaya’s goal.

Four minutes later Urawa threatened to double their lead when Robson Ponte broke at pace only for Edmilson to hit a poor effort off target while, with two minutes remaining, Takahara rattled the crossbar with a well-struck volley from the edge of the area.

Those misses were to cost the holders just six minutes after the restart as Gamba pulled level, both on the night and on aggregate.

Urawa’s defence failed to track the perfectly-timed run of Satoshi Yamaguchi into the penalty area and the Gamba captain scored with a free header as Endo sent over a corner from the right.

Gamba were now clearly in the ascendancy and with 73 minutes on the clock, they turned the game on its head by scoring a second, crucial away goal.

Another Endo corner caused consternation as Myojin flicked the ball towards goal and Yamada was unable to stop it from crossing the line.

Three minutes later the deal was sealed when Endo capitalised on some ragged defending by Urawa to slot home from the left side of the penalty area and complete an historic victory.