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, the J.League Cup, the AFC Champions League 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. Head of the academy Masanobu Matsunami 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. 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 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 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, 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.

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 Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors of South Korea, Tampines Rovers of Singapore and Australia's Sydney FC. 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 Tashkent, Uzbekistan between 25 June and 10 July. All matches were played behind closed doors due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Uzbekistan.

Japanese Super Cup

Statistics

Appearances

Goalscorers 
The list is sorted by shirt number when total goals are equal.

Clean sheets
The list is sorted by shirt number when total clean sheets are equal.

References

External links
 Official website 

Gamba Osaka seasons
Gamba Osaka