19th December, 2023
Manchester City on Tuesday night trounced Urawa Red Diamonds to secure their first final in a FIFA Club World Cup tournament.
In a highly entertaining semi-final game at the King Abdullah Sports City, an own goal from Marius Hoibraten and fine strikes from Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva secured City’s safe passage through to the final in their first ever appearance at the tournament.
The victory sets up a global showpiece final against Brazilian side Fluminense on Friday, with City on the brink of creating more history after last season’s Treble success and subsequent UEFA Super Cup victory.
Should City win on Friday, they would become the first English team in history to hold the Premier League, FA Cup, UEFA Champions League, Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup simultaneously.
How City defeated Urawa Red Diamonds
A clear pattern emerged almost immediately. Urawa Red Diamonds, whose recent success has been built on their solid defensive backline, sat back and denied City time and space, with sporadic counter-attacks their main hope of scoring.
City were going to have to be patient, with the Japanese side disciplined, hard-working and well-drilled.
The first sight of goal came after eight minutes when Rodri tried one from distance, but his powerful effort went wide of the upright. The Spaniard later flashed a half-volley wide and had a first-time effort from inside the box blocked superbly as he looked to singlehandedly seize control of the game.
Matheus Nunes forced a fine save from Reds ‘keeper Shusaku Nishikawa when he bundled the ball past Ken Iwao and struck a fierce volley from close range.
Nishikawa was then forced into another save soon after, this time from Phil Foden’s curling effort, before denying Nunes again, with the Portugal midfielder’s effort too close to the ‘keeper to cause any significant alarm.
The game was largely being played in the Urawa Reds’ half, and it felt a matter of time before City broke the deadlock – and on the stroke of half-time, a deserved opening goal finally came.
Nunes, who had been lively throughout the first half, rolled Iwao superbly midway inside the Reds half and played a fine one-two with Bernardo Silva down the right before crossing across the face of goal – and in an attempt to ensure the ball didn’t make it through to a City player, defender Marius Hoibraten put through his own net.
It was a moment of misfortune for the Norwegian, but it was no less than City deserved.
City’s lead was doubled early in the second half when Mateo Kovacic scored his first City goal. Kyle Walker produced a quite brilliant outside-if-the-boot through-ball that split the Reds defence wide open, and Kovacic dispatched the ball expertly. It was an emphatic finish and impressive all-round goal.
It should have been 3-0 moments later but Nunes somehow headed wide from Jack Grealish’s perfectly played cross, but just before the hour mark Pep Guardiola’s side did get the third.
Nunes skipped past substitute Takuya Ogiwara but his effort was saved by Nishikawa, but only as far as Bernardo who finished with aplomb.
City were now in total control and expressing themselves in attack, with Urawa Red Diamonds suddenly looking exposed and out of ideas.
Guardiola made a triple substitution to freshen his pack, with Julian Alvarez, Oscar Bobb and Josko Gvardiol coming on to replace Foden, Bernardo and Manuel Akanji.
And Bobb was soon in on the action, delivering yet another lively cameo. He hit an effort wide moments after coming on, produced a couple of beautiful shoulder drops to go past players and then found a fine pass into Alvarez, whose close-range effort was well saved.
