We look ahead to the second semi-final at the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup with our Urawa Red Diamonds vs Manchester City prediction and preview. Who will progress to Friday’s final?
Urawa Red Diamonds vs Manchester City Stats: The Quick Hits
- Manchester City are predicted to defeat Urawa Red Diamonds by the Opta supercomputer, winning 75.4% of pre-match simulations.
- Pep Guardiola has won all six of his previous matches in charge at a FIFA Club World Cup.
- Asian clubs have lost all 13 of their previous FIFA Club World Cup games against European sides.
Match Preview
Urawa Red Diamonds and Manchester City meet in the second semi-final of the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup on Tuesday, with the winner progressing to Friday’s final and facing Brazilian side Fluminense – winners of the 2023 Copa Libertadores – who defeated 2022-23 CAF Champions League winners, Al Ahly from Egypt in Monday’s semi.
This will be only the second-ever competitive meeting between a Japanese and an English club, after Manchester United’s 5-3 FIFA Club World Cup semi-final win over Gamba Osaka in 2008. In fact, Asian clubs have lost all 13 of their previous FIFA Club World Cup games against European sides, conceding 41 goals in the process (3.2 per game). Urawa Red Diamonds’ only such match saw them lose 1-0 to Milan in the 2007 edition.
While Urawa Reds will be competing in their third FIFA Club World Cup, finishing third in 2007 and fifth in 2017, Man City are competing in the FIFA Club World Cup for the very first time, becoming the fourth English club to feature in the tournament since it began in 2000, after Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea.
European sides have won each of their last 20 FIFA Club World Cup matches, a run stretching back to Chelsea’s 2012 final defeat to Corinthians (1-0). Three of the four defeats in Club World Cup matches by European clubs, though, have been English teams: Vasco da Gama 3-1 Man Utd in 2000, São Paulo 1-0 Liverpool in 2005, and Corinthians 1-0 Chelsea in 2012.
This will be Man City manager Pep Guardiola’s fourth participation in the FIFA Club World Cup as a manager, lifting the trophy in each of his previous three with Barcelona (2009, 2011) and Bayern Munich (2013), seeing his sides win all six of their games across those editions.
Recent Form
Man City enter this match after a period of mixed form, winning just three of their last eight competitive matches. Draws with Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Crystal Palace as well as a defeat away to Aston Villa on 6 December have shown City do have frailties to expose with their current squad, especially with top scorer Erling Haaland missing for the last three matches.
Saturday’s 2-2 draw to Crystal Palace at the Etihad Stadium saw them concede an equaliser in the 95th minute thanks to Michael Olise’s penalty. They had led 2-0 with 14 minutes remaining after goals from Jack Grealish and Rico Lewis but let their two-goal lead slip and now sit five points off the top of the Premier League table.
Urawa Reds aren’t in fantastic form themselves. The Japanese club have lost twice as many games (six) as they have won (three) across their last 10 games in all competitions but sealed a 1-0 win over Mexican side León in the FIFA Club World Cup second round last Friday.
In scoring their winner in that match against León, Alex Schalk became the first Dutch player to score at the tournament since Romeo Castelen for Western Sydney Wanderers vs ES Sétif in 2014. Despite only coming on to play the final 17 minutes of the match, no Urawa Reds player attempted more shots against León than Schalk (three).
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system that assigns an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off in this match, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
Urawa Red Diamonds vs Manchester City Prediction
Manchester City are predicted to progress to the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup final with a victory over 2022 AFC Champions League winners Urawa Red Diamonds on Tuesday by the Opta supercomputer. Man City won 75.4% of the 10,000 simulations ahead of kick-off, with the Japanese side winning just 10%.
The pre-game simulations saw 14.6% of games finish in a draw after 90 minutes and enter extra-time.
History backs the Opta supercomputer’s pre-game prediction. Clubs from European nations have won all 18 of their previous FIFA Club World Cup semi-finals by an aggregate score of 52-9. English sides specifically have won all five of their semi-finals.
Urawa Red Diamonds vs Manchester City Squads
Urawa Red Diamonds
Shusaku Nishikawa, Hiroki Sakai, Atsuki Ito, Takuya Iwanami, Marius Høibråten, Yoshio Koizumi, Bryan Linssen, Shoya Nakajima, José Kanté, Takahiro Sekine, Takahiro Akimoto, Ayumi Niekawa, Alex Schalk, Ken Iwao, Tomoaki Okubo, Kai Shibato, Kaito Yasui, Takuya Ogiwara, Ekanit Panya, Alexander Scholz, Shinzo Koroki, Shun Yoshida, Ayumu Ohata.
Coach: Maciej Skorża
Manchester City
Ederson, Kyle Walker, Rúben Dias, Kalvin Phillips, John Stones, Nathan Aké, Mateo Kovačić, Erling Haaland, Jack Grealish, Jérémy Doku, Rodri, Kevin De Bruyne, Stefan Ortega, Julián Álvarez, Bernardo Silva, Sergio Gómez, Joško Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji, Matheus Nunes, Scott Carson, Phil Foden, Oscar Bobb, Rico Lewis.
Coach: Pep Guardiola
* Each team had to name a 23-man squad (three of whom had to be goalkeepers). Injury replacements are allowed until 24 hours before the team’s first match, so squad members may change between now and kick off.
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