In the summer of 2025, Inter will play in the first edition of the Club World Cup with 32 teams in the United States. The E group in which Simone Inzaghi’s team has been placed includes three competitors who will contend for qualification with the nerazzurri. Let’s take a closer look at Urawa Red Diamonds, a team from the fourth bracket at the time of the draw.
HOW URAWA RD PLAYS
Urawa RD is possibly the team with the least talent in Group E, but it should not be underestimated because Japanese soccer has grown a lot in recent years and can be organized and great at running.
They were even the Asian Champions League champions in 2022, and can claim to be the club with the record number of Emperor’s Cup victories 8. The squad also includes a former Italian Serie A player, Samuel Gustafson, who we have come to know in Italy with the jerseys of Torino and Verona.
URAWA RD, TYPICAL FORMATION
The coach of Urawa Red Diamonds is a European, named Maciej Skorza, who is Polish and plays with a 4-2-3-1 but sometimes also a 4-3-3. His team hasn’t had a great season because they will play the 38th and last day of the J1 League this Sunday and are in 12th position – a rather mediocre season, but they will be in the midst of the new tournament in June and therefore in full form. The typical formation is as follows.
Urawa Red Diamonds 4-2-3-1: Niekawa; Sekine, Høibraten, Sato, Naganuma; Yasui, Watanabe; Maeda, Koizumi, Haraguchi; Thiago Santos. Coach: Maciej Skorza.
THIAGO SANTOS, THE STAR OF URAWA RD
The most formidable player of Urawa is Thiago Santos, a 31-year-old Brazilian forward who often scores in the Japanese championship and has been playing there for more than three years, having also played with Shimizu S-Pulse after experiences in Portugal with Santa Clara and Vitoria Setubal. Thiago Santos has scored 12 goals in the tournament this year and could be the talent to watch most closely for Inter’s defense.
INTER-URAWA RD, PREVIOUS MEETINGS IN THE COMPETITION
Inter and Urawa Red Diamonds have never faced each other in official matches. However, the Japanese club has already faced an Italian team – Milan, in the 2007/08 Club World Cup, with a victory for the rossoneri 0-1 signed by Clarence Seedorf.
In the past, Urawa RD has already played three times in this competition: first in 2007/08 with a final third place, then in 2017/18 when they ranked fifth, and finally last year in 2023/24 when they finished the tournament in fourth place after losing the little final against Al Ahly.
