Manchester City reach World Club Cup final after dominating Urawa Reds

Semi-finals do not come much easier than this. Manchester City will fight for the World Club Cup title against Fluminense on Friday and they were not given the slightest trouble by Urawa Red Diamonds, who managed only one shot all night.

The Japanese club had held out gamely enough until Marius Høibråten, their centre-back, scored an unnecessary own goal in first-half stoppage time; from there the score could have been anything City wanted but they settled for further strikes from Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva, both of which stemmed from marvellous pieces of initiative from their own defenders.

It meant City, smarting from their flat domestic form, could comfortably play themselves into form before what should be a more exacting final. The gulf in class between the champions of Europe and Asia can rarely have been wider, although Urawa are hardly the first team to be reduced to passengers by Pep Guardiola’s players.

In comparison to some of the earlier matches in this tournament, including a raucous quarter-final between Al-Ahly and Fluminense, this did not have the feel of a gala event. Sky blue shirts were dotted around King Abdullah Sport City stadium, an aesthetically dramatic venue that suffers for being far from Jeddah’s city centre, but not in enough concentration to generate much noise. A clutch of fans had made the journey from Manchester in hope of watching City sit atop the globe but most of those present were drawn from the club’s regional fanbase. Outside the Red Sea Mall, a shopping centre that claims to be the Middle East’s biggest, a group of supporters who had travelled from Iraq congregated and posed for photographs.

A small, vivid section of Urawa supporters danced, bounced and waved flags. At kick-off the venue was, disappointingly for the organisers, around half full. In 26C heat City, for whom Jack Grealish and Phil Foden began as split wide forwards in a setup with no orthodox striker, might have reasoned that monopolising possession would wear their opponents down. They barely let go of the ball for eight minutes before Rodri cracked narrowly wide of Shusaku Nishikawa’s right post from 25 yards.

Urawa were going to be chasing City throughout and clearly knew it. One piece of pressure from José Kanté, their striker, caused a brief flutter when Ederson battered a clearance against him. Otherwise the traffic, albeit not exactly running at full tilt, flowed one way. Silva wafted a shot over and, stretching to meet a clever Grealish pass, could not find a way past Nishikawa.

In a rare loosening of control Manuel Akanji was booked after Kaitun Yasui had turned him near halfway; otherwise City slowly tightened the screw, Rodri seeing a shot blocked on the half-hour and Nishikawa turning Matheus Nunes’s angled effort over his bar. City had officially enjoyed 82% of the ball but it felt like more.

They were yet to create a clear chance, though, and Urawa looked unflustered despite the intensity of their rearguard action. Sightings of the onlooking Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne, both at different stages of recovery from injury, on the stadium’s big screen awoke City’s support en masse for the first time. On the pitch Foden and Rodri, both shooting too close to Nishikawa, could not match their watching teammates’ usual levels of accuracy.

Urawa seemed to have made it to halfway but then disaster struck for Høibråten. Nunes was sent away by Silva down the right but his centre had little hope of locating an onrushing Foden. Høibråten had not got that memo and flew in to intercept, jabbing past a helpless Nishizawa at the near post.

It felt like game over: City had smothered their opponents and, via a stroke of luck, picked them off. Straight after the restart they were reminded against complacency when Kyle Walker’s mistake almost brought a sniff for Kanté. The lesson was learned, and then some. With the next serious action, Walker stepped inside and released Kovacic with a sublime, perfectly weighted pass between two defenders with the outside of his foot. Kovacic was midway inside Urawa’s half but nobody was going to brush him aside; he reached the box and, finishing emphatically, removed any lingering doubts.

Nunes immediately missed the game’s easiest chance, somehow heading a Grealish cross wide from three yards out. But City now looked like scoring at will and Silva, via a deflection off the luckless Høibråten, beat Nishizawa with a low effort after the keeper had saved well from Nunes. A marvellous pass from Akanji, slid from back to front along the ground, created the initial opening.

Grealish overelaborated when he should have added a fourth before Bryan Linssen, an Urawa substitute, could not exploit a mistake from the thoroughly underemployed Ederson. City, though, could eye their shot at history.