INTER Milan fought back from behind on tonight with two late goals to beat Urawa Red Diamonds 2-1 in their FIFA Club World Cup clash in the United States of America.
Ryoma Watanabe opened the scoring for Japanese side Urawa in the first half before Lautaro Martinez scored a spectacular equaliser and Valentin Carboni netted a late winner to deny the J-League club a shock result.
This result means Inter Milan got their first win under the management of Cristian Chivu, after they were held to a 1-1 draw by Monterrey in their Club World Cup opener.
Whilst Chivu’s side dominated their opposition for the entire match, Urawa had to dig in and, to their credit, fought off the star-studded Inter attack well.
Inter were by far the more dominant side in the first 45 minutes. Nicola Zalewski offered a lot of attacking threat on the left-hand side behind Lautaro Martinez and Urawa struggled to get the ball out of their half for the first 20 minutes.
However, with their first attack of the game, a dangerous counter-attack provided talismanic forward Watanabe the chance to give the Japanese side the lead – and he duly delivered.
Earlier today, Borussia Dortmund held off a spirited comeback from South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns to secure a 4-3 victory and move closer to the Club World Cup knockout stages.
Dortmund were behind after 11 minutes at the TQL Stadium but rallied to win their second game in Group F and move top of the standings with four points, one more than Sundowns.
Felix Nmecha, Serhou Guirassy and Jobe Bellingham scored for the Bundesliga club who also profited from an own goal.
Lucas Ribeiro had given Sundowns the lead while Iqraam Rayners and Lebo Mothiba scored in the second half as they looked to rally from 4-1 down in a competitive game played in blazing hot conditions with a mid-day kickoff.
Ribeiro burst through a static Dortmund defence, picking up the ball on the halfway line and gliding past two opponents to score a shock opener.
But the lead lasted only five minutes before a calamitous error from Sundowns goalkeeper Ronwen Williams, who played a short pass to Nmecha who had an easy tap-in for the equaliser.
Dortmund went ahead after a slick set of one-two passes between Julian Brandt and Guirassy who powered home with his head.
Bellingham, in his second appearance for Dortmund, made it 3-1 on the stroke of half-time as Williams parried Brandt’s cross straight at him, and he delayed shooting for a split second before wrong-footing the goalkeeper.
Rayners struck the woodwork for Sundowns 10 minutes into the second half but on the hour mark Daniel Svensson’s cross from the left took a wicked deflection off Sundowns’ fullback Khuliso Mudau as Dortmund extended their lead.
Two minutes later, the South African side pulled one back as Teboho Mokoena’s free kick was floated to Rayners, who struck the foot of ... but the rebound bounced back onto his head and he did not waste the second opportunity.
Mothiba struck in the 90th minute as Sundowns stole away possession and the substitute scored from close range but they could not find an equaliser.
With agency reports