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River Plate 3-1 Urawa Red Diamonds – Report, result and goals as South American side clock first win

The South American side enjoyed a winning start to the Club World Cup.

Written by Mitch Fretton
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River Plate 3-1 Urawa Red Diamonds – Report, result and goals as South American side clock first win

River Plate secured a 3-1 victory over Urawa Red Diamonds in a fun and entertaining Club World Cup encounter.

Both sides were full of attacking intent in a game filled with drama, goals, genuine entertainment – something that has not been a common theme at the tournament so far.

The match got off to a flying start for the Argentine side as Facundo Colidio opened the scoring in the 12th minute, finishing calmly from a Milton Acuna ball.

Despite River’s early dominance, Urawa Red Diamonds responded well and managed to grow into the game.

After a heated first half filled with aggressive challenges, resulting in yellow cards for Ezequiel Perez and Sebastian Gustafson, River Plate went into the break with a narrow lead.

However, Urawa struck back shortly after the restart. Yusuke Matsuo converted a penalty in the 58th minute to bring the Japanese side level, following a foul that also saw Acuna booked.

The parity didn’t last long. Just two minutes later, Sebastian Driussi restored River’s advantage with a nice finish.

As the game moved into its final phase, River Plate found their decisive goal in the 73rd minute. Meza, who had only come on at half-time, latched onto a second assist of the night from Acuna to fire home what proved to be the final goal of the night.

Both managers rang in the changes late on in a bid to turn the tide, but River held on to clinch a hard-fought win.

Urawa’s, Watanabe was shown a late yellow card as frustrations grew, but River Plate managed the game well in the closing stages to seal all three points.

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