Manchester City will play Fluminense in the Club World Cup final

In the final of the Club World Cup, which is taking place in Saudi Arabia, two clubs will meet, despite the sound of their brands, which, oddly enough, have never participated in this competition. The strongest club in Europe, Manchester City, of course, looks like a favorite in the confrontation with the strongest club in South America, Fluminense, but with some reservations: for example, regarding the loss of the best Manchester scorer Erling Haaland, the general poor tone of the English giants in December, and also quite the peculiar and awkward style that defines the Brazilian team on good days.

The Club World Cup final in Jeddah on Friday certainly seems like a great chance for Manchester City to add a new trophy to their trophy collection. This tournament has long turned into ideal proof of how far European football has leapt from others. His last misfire dates back to 2012: then, in the decisive match, the Brazilian Corinthians defeated Chelsea. Since then, ten competitions in a row have been won exclusively by representatives of Europe, that is, those who bore the title of winner of the Champions League.

And right off the bat, of course, you won’t see any compelling reasons to predict that the series will definitely end now. Naturally, there is not a single respected media resource that, having decided to criticize, would suddenly deprive Manchester City of their favorite status. The difference in resources – both financial and personnel – at the disposal of the two clubs is too great: the English one buys all the best, the Fluminense squad is a mix of veterans already unnecessary for the European giants due to their age, who at the end of their careers wanted to play in their homeland, like 40 -year-old Felipe Mel or 35-year-old Marcel, talented young people on the pencil of the tops, like the midfielder Andre, and simply strong, but unremarkable characters. For Manchester City, for example, they are unlikely to ever be suitable – there are brighter ones on the market.

But still, there is no escaping the fact that the English club has favorite status with quite serious reservations. And the first is that before the Club World Cup, Manchester City was not in the tone in which they were used to seeing it. Of the six English Championship matches that preceded the tournament in Saudi Arabia, he won only one – against Luton – and even fell out of the top three, although such a development of events seemed unthinkable until recently.

The second caveat is the loss of Erling Haaland, who still, as it turned out, had not recovered from his leg injury. And, whatever one may say, a lot depends on him in the Manchester game.

Without difficulty, in warm-up mode, keeping some of the leaders on the bench, they defeated the Japanese Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-finals – 3:0; these circumstances did not prevent Manchester City. But still, in the next match he will have to deal with a much more dangerous opponent.

In the case of Fluminense, those who see this team much more often than Europeans, such as ESPN experts, pay attention primarily not to its application, but to its style of play. The club, like Manchester City, which has never competed in the Club World Cup or its predecessor, the Intercontinental Cup, is coached by Fernanda Diniz. His name is primarily associated with the Brazilian national team, which Diniz now also leads. Under his leadership, she suffered failure after failure in the qualifying tournament for the World Cup. But with Fluminense everything is different. It is extremely effective, and primarily due to its specific tactics, which cause terrible discomfort to opponents.

The team’s football sometimes seems chaotic – players change positions, at times they can crowd together in some small area of ​​the field to play the ball on it. However, in fact, the chaos is completely controlled and calculated.

True, in the semi-final match of the World Cup against the Egyptian Al-Ahly, the scheme worked so-so. Moreover, it’s even strange that everything for Fluminense went off without any crazy hassle. The opponents launched two dozen shots at his goal, created a bunch of good chances, but did not score anything due to their own luck and the courage of another Brazilian “dinosaur” – goalkeeper Fabiu, who is 43 years old. As a result, at the end of the match, Fluminense’s attack still produced two goals and pushed it into the final. And there you will have to face a club that, of course, will not forgive such pliability of the rear, albeit in poor tone, even without Haaland.

Alexey Dospehov