YEDA.- The Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiolashowed his admiration for Brazilian football this Thursday, on the eve of facing Fluminense in the final of Club World Cupfor whose “essence” he showed “enormous respect.”
“I love it. I love how they associate, the respect for the ball, I love it. I know perfectly well what the team we are going to play against is like, a huge respect for the essence of Brazil“said Guardiola in the pre-match conference from the stadium’s press room. King Abdullah Sports City.
“When I was a child I heard from my father the successes of Brazil with the different generations, many passes, slow and fast, how they manage the two rhythms, I have seen it for many years,” added Guardiola, who is on the verge of winning his fourth Club World Cupafter the two achieved with the FC Barcelonaplus another with him Bayern Munichan experience that doesn’t make you feel any less nervous.
“The emotion is there, it’s about how you manage it, how long it stays in your head, that’s the great challenge of the finals (…) I am aware that competing against South American teams is very difficult“.
The icing on the cake:
He Manchester City On Friday, he will seek to close a historic 2023 in which he has already won four titles; Champions LeaguePremier League, European Super Cup and English Cup. “It would be the culmination of what we did last season (…) It would be one of the greatest achievements.”
But to do so, the ‘Citizens’ face the last obstacle that represents Fluminenseof which the Catalan coach highlighted “the experience of Felpe (Melo), Marcelo, the goalkeeper (Fábio), They can control emotions perfectly. and they have talent.”
“Cano is a striker who always has the goal in his head. They play with the typical Brazilian style of the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, like when Brazil he won World Cup 1994“.
It will be a pitched battle for Guardiola:
“Because of the way they play, it demands a lot of effort, accepting that we play against a team with a style that we have never faced before, it is not positional, they move a lot, so we have to impose our rhythm and our positional game as much as possible“, he analyzed.
With the press conference just a few hours after the announcement by the European justice system that estimated that the ban on Super League was contrary to law, Guardiola chose to remain cautious: “I am not going to comment on that hours before playing the final of the Club World Cup. “There is time to reflect, and the lawyers and the clubs will decide what to do.”
Source: AFP
