The 2021 Gamba Osaka season is the club's 41st season in existence and the eighth consecutive season in the top flight of Japanese football. In addition to the domestic league, Gamba Osaka participated in the

Emperor's Cup , commonly known as or also Japan FA Cup is a Japanese football competition. It has the longest tradition of any football match in Japan, dating back to 1921, before the formation of the J.League, Japan Football League and their predecessor, J ...

, the J.League Cup, the

AFC Champions League The AFC Champions League (abbreviated as ACL) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation, and contested by Asia's top-division football clubs. It is the most prestigious club competition ...

and the Japanese Super Cup.

Background

After finishing runners-up in both the league and the Emperor's Cup in 2020, Gamba Osaka started the season competing in the Japanese Super Cup but narrowly lost to stoppage time winning goal. Their league campaign was then heavily disrupted by an outbreak of COVID-19 in the squad. After losing their first league game of the season on 27 February, they did not play another game until 4 April. They started the league campaign extremely poorly, winning only one of their first ten games and only scoring three goals in the process. This run led to the dismissal of manager Tsuneyasu Miyamoto following their 2–1 home defeat to

Sanfrecce Hiroshima Sanfrecce Hiroshima ( ja, サンフレッチェ広島, translit=''Sanfuretche Hiroshima'') is a Japanese professional football club based in Asaminami-ku, Hiroshima. The club plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the coun ...

. Head of the academy

Masanobu Matsunami is a former Japanese Association football, football player and manager. Playing career Matsunami was born in Gifu on November 21, 1974. After graduating from high school, he joined Gamba Osaka in 1993. he played as regular player from first sea ...

took over on an interim basis, until in June it was announced he would be taking over the managerial role for the remainder of the season. In spite of being in the relegation places for the first half of the season and being one of the league's lowest scorers, Gamba managed to string some results together in the second half of the season and finished in 13th place, eight points clear of relegation. Gamba did fare slightly better in the cup competitions, reaching the quarter-finals of the Emperor's Cup before a home defeat to

Urawa Red Diamonds , colloquially Urawa Reds (浦和レッズ), also known as Mitsubishi Urawa Football Club from April 1992 to January 1996, is a professional football club in the city of Saitama, part of the Greater Tokyo Area in Japan. The club plays in the J ...

. They also reached the quarter-finals of the J.League Cup, but this was the round they entered the competition at due to their commitments in the AFC Champions League. Competing in the continental competition for the first time since 2017, Gamba went out at the group stage despite only losing one game out of their six matches. This included an 8–1 victory over Singapore's Tampines Rovers.

Patric Patric may refer to: * PATRIC, the Pathosystems Resource Integration Center, a bacterial infectious disease information system * Patric (singer) (born 1947), full name Patrick Martin, French singer * Patric (footballer, born 1987), full name Ande ...

was the stand-out performer for Gamba throughout the season, scoring 23 goals in all competitions, 38% of all goals that they scored. He finished joint 5th in the overall league scoring charts.

Players

Season squad

Transfers

Arrivals

Departures

Competitions

Overall record

J1 League

League table

Results summary

Results by round

Matches

Due to an outbreak of

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

within the team after the first league game, Gamba did not play another game until the seventh game week.

Emperor's Cup

J.League Cup

Due to their involvement in the

2021 AFC Champions League The 2021 AFC Champions League was the 40th edition of Asia's premier club football tournament organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), and the 19th under the current AFC Champions League title. Al-Hilal won their fourth title by def ...

, Gamba received a bye for the group and playoff stages of the competition. However, they were knocked out at their first hurdle, the quarter-final stage, by Osaka rivals

Cerezo Osaka is a Japanese professional football club based in Osaka. The club currently plays in the J1 League, which is the top tier of football in the country. The club's name ''Cerezo'' (Spanish for cherry blossom) is also the flower of the city of Osaka. ...

Quarter-finals

''Cerezo Osaka won 4–1 on aggregate.''

AFC Champions League

Group stage

Gamba Osaka were drawn into Group H, alongside two-time winners

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of South Korea, Tampines Rovers of Singapore and Australia's

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

. In June 2021, it was announced that all Australian teams would not be participating in the 2021 AFC Champions League due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Sydney FC were replaced in Group H by Thailand's Chiangrai United. The games in Group H all took place in

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between 25 June and 10 July. All matches were played behind closed doors due to the

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