In the stifling heat of Jeddah it turned out Manchester City had little problem clearing their heads. Semi-finals do not come much easier than this and, if Pep Guardiola’s players were still smarting from their flat domestic form, there was never the slightest chance of their embarrassment deepening here.
City will fight for the Club World Cup title against Fluminense after overwhelming Urawa Red Diamonds, who represented Japan gamely but managed only one shot all night. The chasm between the European and Asian champions was vast.
The final on Friday should offer a more exacting test for City although Fluminense, who lean heavily on a 35-year-old Marcelo, will also witness the Premier League champions’ physical and technical superiority at first hand. While they did not break Urawa’s resistance until added time in the first half, the opener coming through an own goal by the centre‑back Marius Høibråten, their opponents were reduced to chasing shadows from the first whistle.
None of that will diminish the satisfaction among City’s ranks if their inexorable, meticulously planned rise is capped by global supremacy. It would certainly make a six-day trip to Saudi Arabia worthwhile and, as Guardiola put it before the match, “complete the circle” of achievements during his tenure. They would visit Goodison Park in eight days’ time with chests puffed out once again.
After all, you can only beat what is in front of you. Urawa knew they would be running after the ball throughout and if their coach, Maciej Skorza, had a regret it was that they made sloppy decisions when glimpses of space to counter came their way. But it is difficult to criticise when your adversary is on a different plane and City’s second goal, which put any doubts to bed seven minutes into the second half, epitomised the gulf in all areas.
Kyle Walker had almost handed José Kanté, Urawa’s largely redundant centre-forward, a glimpse of goal straight after the restart but quickly atoned. Darting infield and understanding exactly where Mateo Kovacic would be running from deep, he sliced through the back line via a devastating pass with the outside of his right foot. It was a sumptuous piece of skill but, in a Premier League game, Kovacic would surely have been caught or ushered away from danger. Here he could barrel clear with defenders in his wake, finish emphatically and render the remainder a question of how many City would score.
They settled for one more, Bernardo Silva’s deflected shot off the luckless Høibråten coming straight after a good save by the busy Shasuku Nishikawa from Matheus Nunes. The attack had been started by Manuel Ákanji’s low, long pass from back to front: a splendid piece of vision that crucially transformed the tempo.
It was enough to delight the scattering of City fans, most of whom had come from in or near the Middle East, around a stadium that looked no more than half full. A handful flew from Manchester in the expectation of marking a moment of history and, given Saudi Arabia’s growing prominence on the football landscape, might consider themselves trailblazers on a path that will soon be firmly trodden. But this was an opportunity for those who cannot take a fortnightly seat at the Etihad Stadium: outside the Red Sea Mall, a shopping centre that claims to be the region’s biggest, a group of supporters who had travelled from Iraq congregated and posed for photographs.
They were largely subdued before Høibråten’s aberration, the loudest cheer by some distance coming when Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne were pictured in quick succession on the giant screens at either end. Both players have come along for the ride but neither will compromise their returns from injury by playing this week; it never looked likely to be cause for regret.
City had struggled to create clear chances for 45 minutes but the guarantee was that, in these conditions and utterly deprived of the opportunity to play, Urawa would eventually bend. Rodri took aim with three shots, one of them blocked inside the area; Silva wafted an effort over before Nishikawa repelled efforts from Nunes and Phil Foden. Guardiola said he had not expected quite as defensive an attitude from Urawa, who had been enterprising enough in beating Club Leon on Friday, and perhaps going in goalless might have complicated his team talk.
- Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhone or the Google Play store on Android by searching for 'The Guardian'.
- If you already have the Guardian app, make sure you’re on the most recent version.
- In the Guardian app, tap the Menu button at the bottom right, then go to Settings (the gear icon), then Notifications.
- Turn on sport notifications.
In the event Høibråten made it significantly easier. City had been turning the screw and in a neat move down the right Silva sent Nunes away. The latter’s centre looked unlikely to reach an onrushing Foden but Høibråten, a Norwegian title winner with Bodo/Glimt, had not got that memo and flew in to intercept. He jabbed firmly inside Nishikawa’s near post and Urawa’s plans went up in smoke.
They would probably have settled for a single-goal defeat at that point; by the end 3-0 felt sparing, Nunes and Grealish among those to miss chances. Surely City will not spurn theirs when destiny calls on Friday.
