Pep Guardiola won his fourth Club World Cup as a coach – more than anyone – and in the process led Manchester City to its first universal title. It was this Friday in Jeddah, the Saudi tourist capital, and on the banks of the Fluminense. The elegant champion of the Libertadores, with plenty of experience, lacked the energy to withstand the pace that his rival imposed on him. City, who press better without Haaland or De Bruyne, caused a demolition at the dictate of the omnipotent Rodri.
4
Ederson Moraes, Walker, John Stones (Gvardiol, min. 74), Aké (Oscar Bobb, min. 81), Rúben Dias, Foden (Matheus, min. 81), Rodrigo (Manuel Akanji, min. 74), Rico Lewis ( Kovacic, min. 61), Grealish, Bernardo Silva and Julián Álvarez
0
Fábio, Marcelo (Alexsander, min. 60), Felipe Melo (Diogo, min. 60), Nino, Samuel Xavier, Keno (John Kennedy, min. 45), Martinelli, Jhon Arias, Ganso (Vinicius, min. 60), André and Germán Cano
Goals 1-0 min. 1: Julián Álvarez. 2-0 min. 27: Nino (pp). 3-0 min. 71: Foden. 4-0 min. 88: Julián Álvarez.
Referee Szymon Marciniak
Yellow cards Marcelo (min. 56), Alexsander (min. 68) and John Kennedy (min. 84)
Ambulatory cameras in and around the locker rooms track the teams in search of multimedia content susceptible to commercial exploitation. Every day with more dedication and resources, since the pre-match and post-match have become a very lucrative spectacle due to the multiplier effect of the networks. Also in the final of the Club World Cup, where a television camera got into the Fluminense round. There the figure of Fábio Devison Lopes stood out. Perhaps convinced that he was starring in an unrepeatable show, the 43-year-old goalkeeper became excited. His excited harangue culminated in a cry so affected that he was left breathless: “We didn't come here to walk! “We have come to show that we are the best in the world…!” Marcelo, in a compassionate gesture, intervened with applause to close a ritual whose ecstasy was close to voodoo.
The South American players took to the field so excited that two minutes into the game they lost 1-0. Bernardo, Foden, Julián Álvarez and Grealish stretched the pressure to the baseline when Marcelo caught the ball and changed its direction with his right foot, his less capable leg. The ball was looking for Arias, but it found Aké. The center-back advanced through a clearing and finished from outside the area. The ball hit the post and bounced off the very opportune Julián Álvarez, who intercepted the trajectory with his chest with the sudden malice of a fly catcher.
Marcellus' agony
Fábio Devison saw him from the goal line, lying down after a vain stretch, and Marcelo, the other main actor in the pre-match film, shook his curly hair with the pre-clear awareness that comes with 35 years and an experience that led him to conquer four Club World Cups with Madrid before emigrating to Brazil to lift the Copa Libertadores. Few careers have been more fruitful than Marcelo's in the history of football and only one Brazilian left-back could boast of improving him: Roberto Carlos. In his position he must have understood that that goal would turn the final into an agony without hope, barring an accident.
There was no such accident. The game proceeded through natural channels. City's pressure could withstand Fluminense's circulation, and Fluminense's pressure could not withstand City's circulation. Good team to compete in its field, this American champion of glorious floats, this team supported by Felipe Melo who has come from traveling around the world several times between excellence and dispersion, this Marcelo great but overloaded, and this Goose who never He moved around the field with ease and now plays like he walks through the parks, they exhausted his energy in half an hour.
There was little news about the young midfielder André Trindade, the supposed jewel in the window, and instead a tribute was given to Rodri. The Spanish midfielder is going through a moment of unknown splendor. He conveys the impression that he would be able to do whatever he wants. His craftsmanship, his fair presence, his ability to influence and resolve, was reflected in every minute of the game. Also when he cut two lines with a tense and precise pass into the space that Foden would occupy, author of the shot that precipitated the 2-0. Nino, slow to react, deflected it into an own goal in the 27th minute. The rest of the game – including Foden's 3-0 and Álvarez's 4-0 – completed the long epilogue of the two-minute knot preceded by the prologue -voodoo.
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