Club World Cup Team Betting Predictions: Urawa Red Diamonds

Perhaps the greatest drawback of a quadrennial Club World Cup is getting the balance right between rewarding success over four years and finding the best in-form teams to truly compete. Urawa Red Diamonds are a real case in point.

Their drop in form since winning the delayed 2022 AFC Champions League makes it tricky to compile Urawa Red Diamonds Fifa Club World Cup 2025 predictions. Below is a full run-down of their chances of winning the competition, complete with an assessment of their squad.

Group E: Inter Milan, River Plate, Urawa Red Diamonds, Monterrey

Fixtures: River Plate vs Urawa Red Diamonds (20:00 BST, June 17), Inter Milan vs Urawa Red Diamonds (20:00 BST, June 21), Urawa Red Diamonds vs Monterrey (02:00 BST, June 26)

Player to watch: Thiago Santana

Had this competition taken place in 2023, then Urawa Red Diamonds might have had a chance of causing the odd ruction.

They were the reigning Asian champions at the time after their two-legged win over Al Hilal in the Champions League final, had been victorious in the Japanese Super Cup and were on the way to another top-four finish in the J1 League and a J.League Cup final appearance.

But the club has had a turbulent time since then, with crowd trouble following an Emperor’s Cup defeat to Nagoya Grampus later in ’23 resulting in them receiving a one-year ban from the tournament for 2024. They would go on to finish 13th in the top flight last season and found their standing in the Japanese game severely diminished.

They arrive in the USA in contention for a top-two finish and a return to the Champions League Elite but their momentum coming out of the trip stateside could be pivotal to their hopes of maintaining that push given the one-month break from domestic football their participation will necessitate.

Club World Cup 2025 Odds

They haven’t got a straightforward task either when it comes to getting out of Group E.

Pooled with Inter Milan, River Plate and Monterrey, they will need to upset one of the two group favourites to progress to the knockout phase.

Inter are 4/9 to win the section, with River at 9/4 and Monterrey 20/1. Urawa, meanwhile, are 16/1 to top the group and 11/4 to qualify for the last 16.

Player to watch: Thiago Santana

To western audiences he may not be the most familiar of footballing Thiagos, but Thiago Santana has developed a reputation for bagging goals in Japan over his five-year spell in Asia.

A regular scorer for Shimizu S-Pulse in 2021, he went on to top the J1 League charts with 14 goals in ’22 despite S-Pa suffering relegation.

Having stuck with the club in the second tier to score another 14 in league and cup the following year, the Brazilian was snapped up by Urawa at the beginning of 2024.

He scored 13 times in his first season in Saitama, including one spectacular effort from halfway which went viral online, and has recently returned to the fray after seven weeks sidelined. That spell out came on the back of a run of three goals in nine games to begin the campaign.

Now 32, Thiago might see this tournament as one last chance to make a real name for himself beyond the Japanese archipelago.

Football Odds

*FIFA Club World Cup: Bet £10 or more on a team to win the 2025 Club World Cup and receive £2 in Free Bets for each game your team wins in 90 minutes to use on Football Bet Builders.

Prediction: To finish third in Group E

Much as I think they may not be the rollover merchants that some will suspect, I just can’t see the Reds doing quite enough to progress beyond the group stage.

The fixture list doesn’t help them much, with the Monterrey clash coming last when the real prizes may already be handed out last.

If they could have come up against the Mexican side first and won it to develop some momentum, then maybe they could have approached River and Inter with a real belief.

But if they don’t get the desired result against River first up, then their tournament could already be effectively over before it’s really begun.

The 11/4 about them to progress tells its own story in that it implies just a 26.4% probability of them getting out of the group.

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