Manchester City will take on Urawa Red Diamonds in the FIFA Club World Cup Semi-Final on Tuesday.
The treble winners discovered their opponent earlier on Friday after the Japanese outfit recorded a 1-0 win over León in the Quarter-Final.
So, what do Manchester City fans need to know about FIFA Club World Cup opponents Urawa Red Diamonds? Let’s take a look…
Manchester City vs Urawa Red Diamonds
Well, Txiki Begiristain – Director of Football at Manchester City – will know all about Urawa Red Diamonds.
The Spaniard actually used to play for the J1 League outfit – making 71 appearances and scoring 19 goals in total.
Anyway, enough about the past – let’s start with the current Urawa Red Diamonds squad and take a look at who Pep Guardiola must watch out for.
Danger men for Urawa Red Diamonds
It was Alex Schalk who scored the only goal of the game for Urawa Red Diamonds against León – just five minutes after coming off the bench in the 73rd minute.
Therefore, the Dutchman could earn a start against Manchester City on Tuesday and hurt Guardiola.
Guinea international Jose Kante also appears to be something of a danger man – the Urawa Red Diamonds No.11 has scored eight goals in 24 J1 League appearances this season.
As shown by SofaScore, the 33-year-old was the highest rated player in Friday’s Quarter-Final clash against León with a 7.7 match rating.
Formation
Urawa Red Diamonds commonly line up in a 4-2-3-1 formation as they did against León.
It will be interesting to see how that matches up to Guardiola’s system, which is effectively the same shape but flipped on it’s head.
The Spaniard uses a unique 3-2-4-1 formation, so it should be a highly entertaining tactical battle.
Manager
Maciej Skorża is the manager of Urawa Red Diamonds.
The Polish tactician has impressively won 231 of his 462 games in management, drawing 106 while losing 125.
Skorża averages 1.67 points per game with his Urawa Red Diamonds side, who have won 25 of their 57 outings under the 51-year-old.
While Manchester City are obviously the overriding favourites for this Semi-Final clash, anything could happen in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Take a look at what will happen if Manchester City win the FIFA Club World Cup here.
You can also see why the treble winners cannot wear the iconic FIFA Champions Badge in the Premier League if the FIFA Club World Cup is secured.
(Correction: The Premier League have since made the surprise decision to allow the FIFA Champions Badge to be worn by Manchester City)
