Abu Dhabi: To achieve the impossible, one must dream of the unthinkable and that’s precisely what coach Henk Ten Cate and his young Al Jazira brigade did, and were rewarded with a historic win in Fifa Club World Cup at the Zayed Sports City Stadium yesterday.

The Pride of Abu Dhabi shocked the Asian Champions League winners Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan 1-0, thanks to a brilliant strike by Ali Mabkhout to an equally exceptional release by Brazilian mid-fielder Romarinho.

Jazira thus became the first UAE team to make it to the semi-finals of the Club World Cup and more importantly, will meet Spanish Giants Real Madrid in the semi-finals on Wednesday.

To win against a top-class Club like Urawa, any team needs to show total domination and Al Jazira did just that controlling the proceedings straight away.

Coach Ten Cate opted for 4-4-1-1 combination to begin with while his counterpart Takafumi Hori started with 4-1-4-1.

While attacking mid-fielder Mbark Boussufa did the spadework with assistance from Romarinho, the hosts enjoyed a major share of the ball in the first quarter.

The Japanese visitors also didn’t take long to get the measure of their opponents. They too started pressing and were almost rewarded in the 26th minute. Shinya Yajima made a fine run down the right flank and sent in a pin point cross but an overlapping Yuko Moto, despite having an open goal in front, tapped it over the framework.

Then in the 33rd minute, Al Jazira striker Mabkhout had the Urawa Reds goalkeeper Shasuka Nishikawa in a spot of bother. Mabkhout’s final touches for a waiting Romarinho, however, couldn’t breach the outstretched leg of Nishikawa.

Saving act

Then a minute later, Nishikawa was again doing the saving act. This time, Nishikawa plucking a goal-bound header from Musallem Fayez at the bottom corner, off a measured cross from the right by Boussufa. The teams went into the breather without disturbing the scorer.

After the change of ends, it was once again the magic of Romarinho, the man with the experience of clinching the title from the Corinthians in 2012, who showed his class with a deft through to give host the breakthrough in the 51st minute.

Mabkhout timed his run to perfection and once he beat the defenders on pace, slipped it past onrushing Urawa custodian Nishikawa in to the open goal.

Then the rock solid Al Jazira goalkeeper and skipper Ali Khaseif rose to the occasion and as he did in the opener against Auckland City, coming up with some fine saves. Khaseif, along with some staunch defending soaked in all the pressure till the end to see Al Jazira home to a sensational win.