Pep Guardiola’s apology to Phil Foden and more Man City moments missed vs Urawa Red Diamonds

20/12/2023

Manchester City are into the FIFA Club World Cup final thanks to a comfortable win over Urawa Red Diamonds in Jeddah on Tuesday. Urawa defended well in the first half, frustrating City [1], who had the majority of the ball without creating many clear-cut chances. A fortunate own-goal from a Matheus Nunes cross gave City the lead on the stroke of half-time, and they took full advantage after the break.

Mateo Kovacic added a second shortly after half-time, before Bernardo Silva sealed the win around the hour mark. City march on to Friday’s final [2] – but before that, we’ve compiled five moments you may have missed from the semi-final stroll vs Urawa. ALSO READ: Matheus Nunes teases Man City after January transfer window question [3]

ALSO READ: Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne remind Man City of Club World Cup bonus [4]

Walker’s public team talks

City led at half-time, but not comfortably. Their opener was a gift of an own goal, and while the Blues had control, they were struggling to create clear chances and were a little open on the counter-attack. After Guardiola spoke to his players at half-time, the team talk appeared to continue into the tunnel just before the players walked out together onto the pitch.

Walker and fellow captain Bernardo Silva were involved in an animated discussion, which looked to stray into disagreement before returning to a constructive debate as John Stones joined in. Rodri and Mateo Kovacic were also deep in discussion as they walked out for the second half. Whatever was said worked, as Walker sent Kovacic through for a second that put City in the control they had been searching for.

Even before the game, Walker had led the team talk within the pre-match huddle on the pitch, with cameras showing a passionate speech from the captain. Kevin De Bruyne is with the squad and could still be confirmed as official club captain after months of secrecy surrounding the true outcome of the squad’s captaincy vote. But while Walker retains the armband and De Bruyne remains out, he will continue to lead his side on the pitch – and could lift another trophy in De Bruyne’s absence on Friday.

Pep’s ‘apology’ to Foden

After City took control of their semi-final, it was a prime opportunity for Guardiola to rest players and rotate his side ahead of the final.

A three-goal lead was the prompt to turn to his bench, as he brought on Josko Gvardiol, Julian Alvarez and Oscar Bobb. Off came Bernardo, Phil Foden and Manuel Akanji. When Foden walked off, Guardiola stopped him to say something as the pair spoke for a few seconds before the forward took his seat.

Guardiola appeared to be apologising to Foden for something – maybe for taking him off in a game where the Urawa defence were gifting City chances. Or he could have been reflecting on a comical chance that saw Jack Grealish wait and wait and wait to shoot before being dispossessed, with Foden having played him into space. Foden looks set to start the Club World Cup final, another feather in the cap of an incredible young career, especially with De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku all ruled out.

He looked good on the right in a new-look system that saw Bernardo as the false nine, and went close on a few occasions to put in one of his better performances in weeks.

Injured trio arrive but don’t play

For a few minutes, City fans saw pictures of De Bruyne, Haaland and Doku arrive with the rest of the squad ahead of the semi-final. De Bruyne had trained on Monday, but the other two hadn’t. Surely they weren’t going to play a part against Urawa given Guardiola’s insistence that he will only play his injured players when match-fit.

De Bruyne was out on the pitch to inspect the surface and joking with teammates, while Haaland took a seat in the dugouts. They knew what fans didn’t – that they weren’t in the squad to face Urawa. What’s more, having been replaced by three youngsters, De Bruyne, Haaland and Doku are now ineligible to play in the final and won’t play a part in the Club World Cup at all.

Instead, Micah Hamilton, Max Alleyne and Mahamadou Susoho are in the squad now. The other youngsters who have travelled to Saudi Arabia – Joel Ndala, Justin Oboavwoduo and Jacob Wright – were seen with their senior teammates on the pitch and arriving with the squad. Like the injured trio, though, they won’t be able to play in the final so are purely with the group for experience.

And what an experience it could be.

Blue Moon in Jeddah

The King Abdullah Sports City Stadium holds 62,000, and while City were well supported, it’s fair to say not everyone wearing blue in Jeddah had made their way over from Manchester. That’s a sign of City’s ever-increasing popularity around the world, and also the fact that Saudi Arabia is a very hard, and very expensive, place to get to. With over 1,000 fans making the trip to Belgrade last week, and Christmas [5] less than a week away, Blues cannot be criticised for not making the trip to Jeddah in a year that has involved City playing games in 10 separate foreign trips.

That’s not to say there were no City fans present, because amid the crowd there were constant renditions of ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘Champions Again’ that could be heard on TV coverage. A small, hardy group of fans were situated behind the goal City attacked in the second half, and they will be present again in the final. City are likely to be vastly outnumbered on Friday given Fluminense’s significant support for the first semi-final.

City may hoover up the support of the locals, but they may struggle to be heard in the final as much as they were against Urawa. At full-time, City players made sure to thank the travelling fans, while Urawa players thanked their equally noisy group of a few hundred fans behind the other goal with a bow.

Light shows and curious pop songs

Usually, when teams walk out at the start of a game, they line up either side of the officials as the anthem of the relevant competition plays before players shake hands. As City and Urawa walked out on Tuesday, there were pyrotechnics, lasers and a light show as you would expect from a high-profile FIFA tournament.

And then, a pop song played over the tannoys. As City fans have got used to booing the Premier League [6] or Champions League [7] anthems, Blues fans in Jeddah might have been dancing along to an upbeat tune that had some players looking confused before kick-off. As it was still going, the handshakes started, adding to the confusion.

At half-time, another light show entertained fans inside the stadium, while Blue Moon was also played to please any City fans in attendance.

The final on Friday should see more extravagant pre-match festivities, and potentially another listen to that catchy song before kick-off.

References

^ City (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Friday’s final (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Matheus Nunes teases Man City after January transfer window question (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Erling Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne remind Man City of Club World Cup bonus (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Christmas (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Premier League (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)
^ Champions League (www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk)