Abu Dhabi: Urawa Red Diamonds’ Brazilian striker Rafael Silva blamed his side’s wastefulness in front of goal for their 1-0 defeat against Al Jazira in Saturday’s Fifa Club World Cup quarter-final at Zayed Sports City.
Asian champions Urawa had 65 per cent of the possession and four more shots on goal than Al Jazira, the best of which came off the post from Silva with two minutes to spare.
However, it was Ali Mabkhout’s 52nd minute winner on Al Jazira coach Henk ten Cate’s 63rd birthday that nicked it for the hosts to set up a glamour clash with Real Madrid in Wednesday’s semi-final.
“It’s about being clinical,” said Silva. “We had a few chances and created a few good opportunities but unfortunately we couldn’t finish them.
“We believed in ourselves and trusted in ourselves but unfortunately this happens.
“We still have one game,” he added of Wednesday’s fifth place play-off with Wydad Casablanca in Al Ain. “This is like a school, we learn from these kind of games and we just have to look forward. Even if it’s not as a winner, it doesn’t matter, we just have to keep going forward.”
Urawa coach Takafumi Hori agreed: “We were really close to scoring but it was mainly our mistakes that prevented us from doing so.
“We were desperate and tired from fatigue, many things accumulated and despite eyeing goal and all our best efforts, we couldn’t get the result we were looking for.
“At this moment I haven’t thought about how we will accept and utilise this defeat but we will see. There’s another match coming up and we have to look forward and reflect on what happened today.
“We are really disappointed as this was an important chance for us but we have to accept and look forward to the next match.”
