Manchester City begin the first Club World Cup campaign in their history against Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds later today.
Urawa, the AFC Champions League holders, have already seen off Mexican outfit Leon to make the semi-finals and now face a glamour tie with the European champions. The winner will face Fluminese, who beat Al Ahly 2-0 in the first semi-final on Monday.
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City will hope what should be a routine couple of wins, to be named world champions for the first time, will give them a chance to refresh and regroup after a disappointing few weeks in domestic football.
The champions have one win in six in the Premier League and have now gone eight games without a clean sheet following Saturday's draw with Crystal Palace. It should be a different story in Saudi Arabia, even with Fluminense lying in wait in the final, should they win on Tuesday.
Date, kick-off time and venue
Urawa vs Man City is scheduled for a 6pm GMT kick-off later today on Tuesday, December 19, 2023.
The match will take place at King Abdullah Sports City.
Where to watch Urawa vs Man City
TV channel: In the UK, the game will be televised live on TNT Sports 2, with coverage beginning at 5.45pm GMT.
Live stream: Subscribers can also catch the contest live online via the Discovery+ app and website.
Live blog: You can follow all the action on matchday via Standard Sport’s live blog.
Urawa vs Man City team news
Manchester City have flown their entire first-team squad to Jeddah for the tournament, inclulding injured trio Erling Haaland, Jeremy Doku and Kevin De Bruyne. The first two were not on show in training on Monday but the Belgian was able to participate for a short while.
All three could feature in the Gulf, but none are certain to do so as they all still carry injuries. Either way, they will surely all sit out this game even the gulf in class between both teams. Matheus Nunes, Mateo Kovacic, Kalvin Phillips and Stefan Ortega should all come in.
Urawa could hand Alex Schalk a start after coming off the bench to score the winner against Leon, and could partner the retiring Jose Kante.
Takahiro Akimoto, Takahiro Sekine and Tomoaki Okubo were all injured during the quarter-final but it remains to be seen if they are ruled out of facing City.
Urawa vs Man City prediction
Manchester City should stroll to victory in this semi-final, despite facing three-time AFC Champions League winners. Even with the expected raft of changes, given possible jet lag and level of opponents, City should be out of sight by half-time.
City to win, 4-0.
Head to head (h2h) history and results
This is the first meeting between the two teams.
Urawa vs Man City match odds
Urawa: 20/1
Draw: 15/2
Man City: 2/17
