Al Ain: Urawa Red Diamond’s coach Takafumi Hori said his side needed to repent for their early exit from the Fifa Club World Cup by winning Tuesday’s fifth place play-off against Wydad Casablanca.
The match kicks-off at 6pm in Al Ain’s Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium.
Asian Champions Urawa crashed out 1-0 to UAE hosts Al Jazira in Saturday’s quarter-final in Abu Dhabi and are now desperate to make amends against the Moroccans.
“We need to repent the loss in the last match,” said Hori. “We were very confident until now, but now we really need to hold ourselves together for the next match and look forward to what’s ahead of us. It’s very important to put in our best efforts to win the next game.
“Wydad are a very physical side, who have a lot of endurance and are mentally strong,” he said of the African champions, who lost 1-0 to Pachuca in their quarter-final on Saturday to drop down to the fifth place play-off with Urawa.
“We’ve prepared accordingly because they are a strong team, we have to get a feel for their style of play from the beginning and then go with the flow.”
Wydad coach Hussan Amotta said he would use the match to give a chance to youth, but Hori refrained from revealing his strategy.
“We will have another training session and then decide what kind of game we want to play based on that.”
Urawa keeper Shusaku Nishikawa said: “I will be in goal tomorrow and I want to save my team. We’ve prepared well for this opponent. They are a great team, so it will be a good occasion for us. We are positively prepared and planning the right kind of attack.
“It was very disappointing to lose the first match and very difficult for us to accept at first, but it gives us pride to represent Japan and we want to carry that forward and keep ourselves ready for tomorrow.”
