Second half goals from Satoshi Yamaguchi, Tomokazu Myojin and Yasuhito Endo earned Gamba a 4-2 aggregate win after Naohiro Takahara had given Urawa the lead going into the half-time break.

But the defending champions were left to rue a series of missed opportunities in the opening period as Takahara also hit the crossbar while captain Nobuhisa Yamada went close with a long-range strike.

“It’s a very painful result,” said the former Yokohama Flugels and Kyoto Purple Sanga coach. “Congratulations to Gamba, it’s very good for Japanese football to have a Japanese team in the final but I wanted it to be us.

“In the first half we pressed well, played very good football and switched a lot. We had Yamada’s shot, Taka’s goal and Taka also hit the crossbar; it was very good, fast football.

“In the second half we knew we couldn’t just defend but in the end we lost those two goals through set plays. It was not the content of the match but set plays and always, in any game, that hurts the most”

Gamba’s first two goals came as a result of Urawa’s inability to defend a pair of corners from Japan international midfielder Endo, who then applied the finishing touch as Urawa pushed forward looking for the goal that would haul them back into the game.

“Because of the away goals we had to get two goals,” said Engels. “We had to get two more and we lost the third goal on the counterattack.

“Three-one was a very big gap. We had to play with pride but we couldn’t make a miracle happen. The result was the worst one possible for us but the performance at times, and on average, was pretty good.”

Urawa’s first half showing suggested the 2006 J.League champions could put a run of disappointing domestic form behind them as they tormented Gamba across the pitch, but a sluggish start to the second period ultimately cost Reds, with Yamaguchi equalising six minutes after the restart.

“We lost our rhythm at the start of the second half,” said Engels. “We did get too negative but it was a problem that would have solved itself within 10 minutes.

“But the goal came at the wrong time. Another few minutes at 1-0 and it would have corrected itself, but that’s football.”