Key occasions
10 min: There are one or two barely nervy moments for City in defence – a again cross for Ederson is left a bit brief and he finally ends up having to sort out Kante, who’s charging in with intent.
9 min: An electronic mail!
“Red Diamonds? I suppose it’s fitting that Stones will feature on Ruby Tuesday.”
That was from Peter Oh. Feel free to electronic mail me.
8 min: Rodri slams a low shot goalwards from distance that flashes previous an upright.
7 min: Kovacic tucks a ball to Grealish on the overlap, charging down the left-hand facet of the penalty space as City are attacking. He takes a heavy contact however manages to maintain it in. Anyway, City are beginning to dominate.
5 min: Ake floats an imperious angled crossfield ball to Foden, lofting it over the midfielders from across the left-back place. City are beginning to get their passing patterns going. Then Akanji seems for Kovacic with an extended ball by the center. Nishikawa comes out of his aim to assemble it.
4 min: On co-commentary, Robbie Savage kindly tells us that it is a competitors Pep Guardiola desires to win. Not an terrible lot occurring on the pitch in the intervening time. City have had extra of the ball.
2 min: Strong urgent from Urawa to start and City get in a little bit of a defensive muddle, shedding the ball when attempting to play out from the again. A cross is curled to the far submit however Guardiola’s males handle to take care of it.
First half kick-off!
Here we go.
Haaland and De Bruyne are pictured up within the stands. We’re about to kick off …
Anyway, soccer politics and/or geopolitics apart, the match is roughly 5 minutes away. The gamers are lining up within the tunnel. The Urawa Reds gamers are principally hugging and high-fiving demonstratively.
The Club World Cup, in fact, is increasing to 32 groups from 2025.
Bernardo Silva stated yesterday the schedule is already “crazy” and talked about, pointedly, that the gamers weren’t consulted on the choice:
Nick Ames
The expectation is that Manchester City, assuming they shake off their home malaise and beat Urawa Red Diamonds within the semi-final on Tuesday, will change into the competitors’s eleventh successive European winner. Much of the subtext round this month’s occasion, although, has concerned the shifting of energy elsewhere.
A pleasing shot of King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, tonight’s venue. Definitely not Bootham Crescent.
This is all a really good distance from Bootham Crescent. Will Unwin charts the rise of Manchester City from the membership’s lowest level, 25 years in the past …
Team information
Four modifications for City, with Stones, Akanji, Kovacic and Nunes coming into the beginning facet. Phil Foden performs up prime on his personal with Grealish, Nunes and Silva behind. It smells of objectives …
Urawa Reds: Nishikawa; Hoibraten, Scholz, Sekine, Akimoto, Ito, Iwao, Koizumi, Okubo, Yasui, Kante. Substitutes: Niekawa, Yoshida, Sakai, Iwanami, Ogiwara, Ayumu, Nakajima, Shibato, Panya, Linssen, Schalk, Koroki.
Manchester City (4-2-3-1): Ederson; Ake, Akanji, Stones, Walker (capt.); Rodri, Kovacic; Grealish, Nunes, Bernardo Silva; Foden. Substitutes: Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Phillips, Alvarez, Gomez, Gvardiol, Bobb, Alleyne, Susoho, Lewis, Hamilton.
Our #ClubWC line-up! 🩵
XI | Ederson, Walker (C), Stones, Akanji, Ake, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Nunes, Bernardo, Grealish, Foden
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Phillips, Alvarez, Gomez, Gvardiol, Bobb, Alleyne, Susoho, Lewis, Hamilton#ManCity pic.twitter.com/Dz7dupgSGn
— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 19, 2023
Preamble
Manchester City received the lot final season – Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup – however changing into membership world champions in Saudi Arabia this week would full the complete set following their all-conquering 2022-23 marketing campaign.
Under regular circumstances this semi-final in opposition to Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan, who edged previous León of Mexico to succeed in this level, is a match Pep Guardiola’s facet would strategy with cast-iron confidence. But City’s latest kind has been relatively lower than all-conquering and their Japanese opponents could fancy staging an upset in opposition to a facet held to a draw by Crystal Palace on Saturday.
City have received simply as soon as in six Premier League video games, have gone eight matches and not using a clear sheet following the 2-2 draw with Palace, and are in fact with out Erling Haaland who’s recovering from a foot damage. Will this be a confidence-boosting stroll into Friday’s ultimate, the place Fluminense await, or an anxiety-inducing wrestle for Pep and his gamers? We are about to seek out out.
Kick-off: 6pm GMT
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