Leon and Urawa face each other in the quarter-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup this Friday morning, December 15, 2023, starting at 11:30 am. The match is scheduled to take place at the Prince Abdullah al-Faisal Stadium, in the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Leon
Representing Concacaf, Leon’s team, from Mexico, arrives for this match as big favorites to win and survive in the tournament.
Rated with huge favoritism in his odds, Leon knows the importance of being careful, as any lack of attention could end up costing him dearly against an opponent who is also very qualified.
The fact that it is a decisive match played in a single game and at a neutral venue gives a different atmosphere to this confrontation, since the Mexicans and Japanese have a high level of competition in their respective national and continental championships.
Concacaf Champions League champion, Leon, from Mexico, has also just been eliminated in the quarter-final stage of Liga MX.
On that occasion, the Leonine team faced the traditional América and played a very busy match at home, drawing 2-2 in the first game, but ended up getting the worst of it by losing 2-0 away from home in the second and decisive game.
There were 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats in the last 5 times that Leon entered the field officially during the season, beating Juarez and Santos Laguna, in addition to drawing with América and losing to the same América and also for Atlético San Luis.
Urawa
While on the other side is the Urawa squad, from Japan, which represents the Asian continent and knows the Saudi pitch very well, as the Urawa team became champions of the AFC Champions League precisely against the popular Al-Hilal, of Saudi Arabia, winning 2-1 on aggregate.
Their most recent clash was a narrow 2-1 defeat against Hanoi, away from home, in the group stage of the 2023/24 edition of the Asian Champions League, turning on the warning signal on the eve of their debut in the World Cup.
For the Japanese elite, the team finished in fourth place in the championship, with 57 points achieved in 34 rounds, being one point away from the access zone to continental competitions.
There were 2 wins, no draws and 3 defeats in the last 5 times that the Urawa team entered the field officially during the season. During this period, the Japanese team showed its strength by beating Wuhan Three Towns and Sapporo, in addition to losing to Fukuoka, Kobe and also Hanoi.
Conclusion:
Despite being continental champions a few months ago, Leon and Urawa are no longer going through the best of times and ended up frustrating their fans in their respective national championships.
Furthermore, the clash promises to be quite balanced and given the importance of the confrontation, the expectation is that we will have a very tense, truncated duel with few offensive opportunities.