In the night's other last-16 second-leg tie, Kawasaki Frontale of Japan cruised through with a 4-0 win over China's Shanghai Shenhua for a 4-1 aggregate victory as the last two quarter-final berths were decided.

Gwangju had lost 2-0 in Kobe last week but got off to the perfect start in the return leg when striker Park Jeong-in headed home from Park Tae-jun's free-kick after just 18 minutes.

The visitors held firm under a second-half onslaught from Gwangju and were just six minutes from the quarter-finals when Takuya Iwanami handled in the area. Albanian winger Asani slotted home the resultant penalty for his first goal of the match and took it to extra-time.

Asani's second settled the tie in dramatic style just as a penalty shootout was looking inevitable. With less than two minutes remaining, Asani collected the ball outside the Kobe penalty area, shifted it onto his left foot and unleashed an unstoppable rocket.

It flew in off the underside of the bar to spark wild celebrations in the crowd and on the Gwangju bench as the home side completed a 3-2 aggregate win.

Win made in Brazil

In Kawasaki, Frontale had trailed 1-0 from the first leg in China but took control early on a rainswept night. The hosts should have levelled the tie after 12 minutes when their Brazilian striker Marcinho blazed over from Tatsuya Ito's cross with the goal gaping.

Ten minutes later the home side got a deserved opener when Asahi Sasaki cut in from the right and fired a rasping left-foot finish past Shanghai goalkeeper Bao Yaxiong.

Kawasaki put the outcome beyond doubt with two goals made in Brazil in the space of five second-half minutes. First, striker Erison swept home on 64 minutes from Sasaki's pass. Marcinho then made a defence-splitting run after a slick passing move to tee up Ito to make it 3-0.

Marcinho got on the scoresheet himself with a composed finish in injury time to complete a dominant 4-0 victory on the night and make it 4-1 on aggregate.

Gwangju and Kawasaki join Yokohama F-Marinos, last season's finalists from Japan, and Thailand's Buriram United as quarter-final qualifiers from the AFC East Zone.

Already qualified from the West Zone are Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr, fellow star-studded Saudi clubs Al Hilal and Al Ahli, plus Qatar's Al Sadd. The quarter-finals, semi-finals and final will all be played over one leg in Jeddah in Saudi Arabia from April 25 to May 4.

The draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals will be made on Monday in Kuala Lumpur. Teams from the same zone cannot meet each other in the quarter-finals.

J. Asani

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