Manchester City have progressed to the FIFA Club World Cup final after beating Urawa Red Diamonds 3-0 at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah on Tuesday evening.
The reigning Champions League holders were made to work for their victory and initially struggled to break down a resilient, well-organised Urawa backline.
However, Matheus Nunes forced the opener for the Citizens on the strike of half time, with Marius Hoibraten having the misfortune on a momentous occasion for Urawa of putting the ball into his own net from close range.
Fellow summer signing Mateo Kovacic then netted his first goal for the club shortly after the break, before Bernardo Silva added a third to help Pep Guardiola's side prevail and set up a final showdown with Brazilian giants Fluminense on Friday evening.
As for Japanese side Urawa, they will take on Egyptian outfit Al Ahly - who lost 2-0 to Fluminense in the first semi-final on Monday - in the third-place playoff.
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While Urawa named an unchanged side to the one that beat Club Leon 1-0 in the second round last Friday, Man City made four changes to their starting lineup following last weekend's 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace in the Premier League, but Kevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland and Jeremy Doku were all absent from the matchday squad and will be unavailable for Friday's final.
Following a brief shaky spell in possession at the start of the contest, Man City grew into the game and unsurprisingly dominated proceedings, but they were initially unable to create any clear-cut chances and struggled to penetrate Urawa's low block.
Rodri fired an audacious 35-yard strike a few yards wide inside the opening eight minutes before Jack Grealish picked out a run from Bernardo down the left, but the Portuguese was stretching for his shot that was comfortably collected by Shusaku Nishikawa.
Urawa's No.1 was then called into action to make a strong two-handed save at his near post to deny a powerful shot from Nunes on the half-hour mark, before palming away a left-footed strike from Phil Foden from outside the area.
Man City eventually broke the deadlock in the first minute of stoppage time when Nunes burst down the right and drilled a low delivery towards Foden inside the six-yard box, but Hoibraten could only divert his attempted clearance into his own net.
Uwara offered nothing going forward and had just one touch in Man City's box in the first half, but they were gifted their first attempt on goal inside the first minute of the second half when Kyle Walker played a short back-pass to John Stones before Jose Kante pounced and had his shot blocked inside the area.
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Walker made amends five minutes later, though, as he drifted into a central area and played a brilliant outside-of-the-foot pass through to Kovacic, who carried the ball around 20 yards towards goal before lifting his shot over Nishikawa to double City's lead.
Guardiola's men soon made it three just before the hour mark when Nunes cut inside an unleashed a thunderous shot that was parried by Nishikawa straight to Bernardo, who watched his left-footed strike take a deflection as is nestled into the bottom-right corner.
Grealish should have added a fourth for City but wasted a glorious opportunity as he dallied on the ball inside the area before being crowded out by the Urawa defence.
Shortly after Guardiola rang the changes, bringing on Julian Alvarez, Oscar Bobb and Josko Gvardiol for Bernardo, Foden and Manuel Akanji, City put themselves in a spot of bother at the back once again when Gvardiol's sloppy pass across his penalty box presented an opportunity for Kante, but Ederson was quick off the mark to close down the Spanish striker.
Substitutes Bobb and Alvarez then combined at the other end, with the former driving down the right before Alvarez fired a shot into the midriff of Nishikawa from just a few yards out.
Man City eventually saw out the game with ease and remain on course to become world champions for the first time in their history as well as become the fourth English club to win the Club World Cup after Manchester United (2008), Liverpool (2019) and Chelsea (2021).
Oliver Thomas
