Urawa Red Diamonds head into their first third-place Club World Cup (CWC) play-off since 2007 after a 3-0 humbling against the European treble winners Manchester City. You could argue that result was fully expected given that European sides have won each of the last ten CWC tournaments, but a win for the Japanese outfit against Al Ahly here would at least see them swing their all-time CWC record in their favour in what will be an eighth game at the tournament (90 minutes: W3, D1, L3).
The sole 90-minute draw in that sequence ended in a penalty victory in the aforementioned third-place game in 2007, against an African side in the form of Étoile du Sahel no less. The possibility of another shootout seems unlikely here if Urawa’s recent competitive form is anything to go by as they haven’t drawn any of their last nine games (W3, L6), albeit all three victories came across the last five.
After losing out in the semi-finals themselves, the best African champions Al Ahly can hope for is a bronze medal. As the most experienced team in CWC history with 24 competition games under their belts (W10, L14), Egyptian titans Al Ahly will hope for a resurgent performance to sign off on a high after having their nine-game competitive unbeaten run (W4, D5) ended by Fluminese last time out (L 2-0).
It’s a familiar position for Al Ahly, who have featured in each of the last three bronze medal matches, winning twice and losing the most recent, a 4-2 humbling at the hands of Flamengo in 2022. Across the Egyptian side’s five all-time appearances in the CWC third-place play-off, only one has needed penalties to find a winner.
Players to watch: Urawa’s Alexander Scholz had a tough evening in his side’s 3-0 defeat against Manchester City, but has scored from the centre-back position in three of his last six appearances. Al Ahly winger Hussein El Shahat has made more CWC appearances than any other player (14) and each of his last ten goals were the first or second of the game, including his strike against Al Ittihad in this tournament.
Hot stat: The winning side scored exactly four goals in four of the last six CWC third-place play-off games.
