By Samindra Kunti in Jeddah
December 22 – Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola is relishing the challenge of taking on Fluminense and their idiosyncratic style in the final of the Club World Cup as the European champions seek to wrap up their best year ever.
The English club can claim their fifth title of 2023 on Friday night in Saudi Arabia, and, while the Club World Cup does not represent a holy grail for Manchester City, their Spanish manager Guardiola believes the Rio club will present a great challenge.
“The way they play, we’ve never faced, never,” said Guardiola said on Thursday at a news conference. “We will have to impose our rhythm and our positional game as best as possible. They will demand a lot of effort, and (we must) try to be aware and precise with the ball.”
“They play a typical Brazil style from the 70s, 80s, early 90s — until 1994, when they won the World Cup in the United States. I love it. I love the buildup. I love how they associate between each other, the respect (they have) all of the time for the ball.
“When I was a little boy, not even a teenager. I listened to my dad or my people (talk about) the way that Brazil had success with all previous generations.”
Fluminense’s style under manager Fernando Diniz has been called the football of the future with players dominating small areas and discarding positional play. The team overloads the opponent’s half and seeks to relentlessly attack. That style was criticised in Brazil for not yielding trophies until Fluminense won their first-ever Copa Libertadores last month, earning a ticket to the global finals in Saudi Arabia.
No non-European club has won the tournament since Corinthians eleven years ago. Since 2012, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Chelsea have shared the prize in a reflection of Europe’s stranglehold on the competition because of massive foreign investment. Manchester City’s revenue last season was $890 million, Fluminense’s expected 2023 revenue is $74 million.
But it won’t prevent Fluminense from sticking to their own style against City, who will be without striker Erling Haaland, midfielder Kevin De Bruyne and winger Jeremy Doku.
Diniz said: “Fluminense will play like a team that believes in its values and believes that things are possible. Let’s not run away from our characteristics. We prepared a lot. We’ve been watching them for a long time, we’ve mapped them, we’re going to study them. It’s a very complete team, very well trained. Let’s try to do our best with a lot of humility, be smart in the game and have the courage to do what we usually do.”
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