On Tuesday afternoon (19), Manchester City had no difficulty overcoming Urawa Red Diamonds and qualified to face Fluminense in the FIFA Club World Cup final.
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Even without the stars Erling Haaland and Kevin de Bruyne – both of them and Belgian Jeremy Doku were cut from the competition.
Coach Pep Guardiola’s team beat the Japanese team 3-0, opening the scoring with an own goal from Höibraaten in the first half, and completing in the second half with Kovacic and Bernardo Silva.
As a result, the first half was completely dominated by Manchester City, but playing without a center forward, the English team relied on exchanging passes to beat Urawa’s defense. Without success, it was necessary to resort to medium-range shots, well saved by goalkeeper Nishikawa.
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The goal only came in stoppage time, precisely in one of City’s few moves from the wing: after scoring on the right, Matheus Nunes crossed low into the area, defender Höibraaten tried to cut it and ended up scoring against it.
With this, City didn’t need to make an effort to increase the score in the second half against Urawa who needed to go on the attack. After just six minutes, full-back Walker advanced with the ball and made a perfect throw for Kovacic to make it 2-0.
At 13, Nishikawa blocked Matheus Nunes’ shot, but Bernardo Silva scored on the rebound. Even managing the result, City continued to dominate the match until the end.
Now, Manchester City will have until Friday (22) to prepare to face the American champions, the Brazilian team Fluminense, in the grand final of the club world championship.