Gamba showed impressive fortitude to battle back after being comprehensively outplayed in the first half and going a goal behind through Naohiro Takahara’s 36th minute strike to record a 3-1 win on the night and a 4-2 aggregate success.

Second-half goals from Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Myojin and Yasuhito Endo saw Gamba across the finish-line and set up a showdown in the final with either Adelaide United or Bunyodkor.

“It was a superb game,” said Nishino, who has taken his team to the final of the ACL in the club’s second appearance in the competition. “I’m very glad we won and I want to praise my players for the fight they showed today.”

After a 1-1 draw in the first leg in Osaka, Gamba needed to score twice to progress as a result of the away goal Urawa scored in Expo ’70 Stadium and that knowledge allowed Nishino to prepare his team accordingly.

“It wasn’t a bad situation coming into the game,” he said. “We knew if we could control the game we would be okay.

“In the first half we were under very high pressure, but we resisted that well and we knew we had to score.

“At half-time the situation hadn’t changed, we still needed to score two goals to go through, so everybody went out to score.

“Reds dropped their heads after we went ahead and I think we won the mental battle.

“We played this game from the start aiming for two goals and the game went according to plan and I’m extremely pleased with that.

“After we scored the away goal, Reds really were very down. We had the aggressiveness and the awareness to be decisive. In the decisive moments in the match, we went on top.”

Nishino reserved special praise for Japan international midfielder Endo, who scored from the penalty spot in the first leg to earn Gamba a draw before providing the corners from which Yamaguchi and Myojin scored in Saitama.

He then rounded out an impressive second-half showing by hammering the final nail into Urawa’s coffin with Gamba’s third goal in the 76th minute.

“Endo is like a mole,” said Nishino. “He often looks tired and out of it but he still finds his way through skilfully.

“I can’t quite measure him. His way of carrying himself in a game shows extremely high qualities.”