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.

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River Plate

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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Mitch Fretton

Mitch is a freelance sports journalist with experience working for LiveScore, GOAL and Colchester United. He has experience working from both his desk at home and in the press box at games covering the Champions League and international football.

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