After ninteen minutes, it was Neymar who gave the Paulista side the lead when he recieved a pass from Ganso on the edge of the Kashiwa, managing to beat his marker to hit a perfectly place left-footed shot in to the top left corner of the goal.
Five minutes later, Santos’ top goal scorer, Borges, doubled his sides lead. The striker recieved a short pass from Durval and struck a curling shot round Kashiwa goalkeeper, Sugeno, which then flew in to the top right corner of the net.
The Japanese champions did manage to pull a goal back ten minutes in to the second half, when Brazilian midfielder, Jorge Wagner’s corner picked out an unmarked right-back, Saki, who headed the ball past a helpless Rafael in goal.
However, in the sixty third minute, all hopes of Kashiwa Reysol making a come back were put to bed when, Danilo scored Santos’ third from a thirty yard free-kick.
Kashiwa refused to give in until the final whistle, going close on two occasions in the closing stages of the game.
Santos will find out on Thursday which side they will meet in the final, with Spanish giants Barcelona, taking on Qatari side, Al Sadd, in the other semi-final, 10:30 GMT.
Check out Santos’ three wonder strikes.
