Pep Guardiola’s Man City team face a date with destiny on Tuesday evening.
Up against Urawa Red Diamonds, the Cityzens will know that if they’re able to win the Club World Cup semi-final match, they’ll be just 90 minutes away from being crowned World Champions for the first time in their history.
That’s the carrot that has to inspire the XI that Pep has chosen, though the starting XI doesn’t include Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias or Josko Gvardiol.
Our #ClubWC line-up! ?
XI | Ederson, Walker (C), Stones, Akanji, Ake, Rodrigo, Kovacic, Nunes, Bernardo, Grealish, Foden
SUBS | Ortega Moreno, Carson, Dias, Phillips, Alvarez, Gomez, Gvardiol, Bobb, Alleyne, Susoho, Lewis, Hamilton#ManCity pic.twitter.com/Dz7dupgSGn
— Manchester City (@ManCity) December 19, 2023
Haaland doesn’t make the squad along with Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku, whilst Dias and Gvardiol will start the match on the bench.
Ederson starts in goal as usual, and he’ll be protected by a back four of captain Kyle Walker, John Stones, Manuel Akanji and Nathan Ake.
Midfield will consist of Rodrigo, Matheus Nunes and Mateo Kovacic, whilst up front, Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden and Jack Grealish start.
Despite the absentees, it’s still a very strong XI from Guardiola, and unless they allow complacency to creep in, City should be too strong for Urawa Red Diamonds.
The Club World Cup is a tournament that Guardiola has experienced on two previous occasions, both coming when he was with Barcelona and both ending in victories for the Catalans.
He’ll surely be hoping for a hat-trick of wins this week.