River defeated Urawa Red Diamonds in its Club World Cup debut. Marcelo Gallardo's team delivered a great offensive performance, but continues to pay dearly for defensive mistakes and lapses in concentration when losing possession.
At the start of the match, the Millonario quickly showed its dominance, controlling the ball and dictating the pace of play. In that context, Facundo Colidio scored a stunning header in the 11th minute of the first half after a precise cross from Marcos Acuña.
The rest of the first half was an end-to-end exchange between both teams that did not tip the balance for either side, but a key factor began to come into play: physical fatigue.
Despite the power and speed of the Japanese team, River extended its lead at the start of the second half with a header from Sebastián Driussi after a defensive error by the Japanese side. Nevertheless, to the misfortune of the Millonario club, the 29-year-old forward suffered an injury from the subsequent fall.
Although the team showed some dominance and felt somewhat comfortable with the result, Muñeco Gallardo's team began to lose possession and reveal its defensive shortcomings, which became evident with Huevo Acuña's reckless penalty on Takuro Kaneko in the 58th minute. Yusuke Matsuo took the penalty and did not disappoint, making it 2-1 for the moment.
From that point on, the Red team dominated the match against a River side that was starting to tire, but did not manage to convert it into a goal. After 20 minutes of insipid football from the Núñez club, Huevo once again displayed his quality, delivering an exquisite cross to the head of Maxi Meza, who rose to restore the two-goal advantage.
Although Urawa made some attempts to reduce the deficit, the match did not offer any more, ending 3-1 in favor of a River team that must now focus on the next match against Rayados de Monterrey, which will face Inter de Milán today starting at 22:00. For the upcoming fixtures, the main objective of the Millonario coaching staff will be to correct the defensive mistakes, the Achilles' heel of a team that can offer much more.
