27′
19:28
Great for Manchester City, 2-0 by Nino (own goal)
26′
19:27
After Fluminense attracted attention with a lot of possession for almost 20 minutes, City is now more dominant again. Aké is played on the left corner of the penalty area and chips the ball towards the second post. There a defender can clear the leather in front of Foden.
24′
7:25 p.m
Bernardo Silva takes the subsequent free kick to Álvarez, who dribbles and shoots from 30 meters to the left. His shot is blocked in the crowd.
23′
19:24
After a long time, City now has a longer phase of possession and lets the ball run through its own ranks. Grealish asks two opponents to dance on the left wing and is then roughly knocked off his feet.
21′
19:22
Ganso is played in the left-back position and looks for Marcelo, who is in the center, with a pass into the path. The pass doesn’t work, but it’s remarkable how flexible Fernando Diniz’s game is!
18′
7:20 p.m
Once again, Fábio allows a City player to come up empty with a feint and once again resolves the situation playfully. Fluminense is now managing to find solutions in construction. In the opposing half, however, the Brazilians lack ideas and routes.
16′
7:18 p.m
Marciniak first points to the spot, but then decides it’s offside! During the build-up, Ederson plays a fatal bad pass into the foot of Ganso, who immediately goes deep. Cano then tries to go around Ederson in the penalty area, but is clearly hit on the foot by the keeper. After a short delay, the Polish referee rightly ruled the game offside.
15′
7:16 p.m
Fluminense now has a lot of possession of the ball and tries to solve all situations flatly in the build-up. Keeper Fábio has also adapted to the style of play and uses a trick to let the running Álvarez get out. Fluminense’s approach is risky, but it has worked since the second minute of the game.
12′
19:13
Marcelo moves into the six-man position, is played there in the left half-space and drives. The ball is then shifted to the right, where Arias simply shoots from 20 meters. His shot whizzes a good two meters over the short corner. It’s the Copa winner’s first finish!
11′
19:12
Fluminense overloads the right side and can playfully free himself from there. Marcelo then spotted Arias in the depths with a diagonal flying ball, but he wasn’t expecting the pass. Ederson can therefore pick up the ball at his leisure.
8th’
7:09 p.m
With extremely risky build-up play in their own penalty area, Fluminense can now free themselves from Manchester’s pressing. Marcelo plays a nice pass from the left into the path of Arias, who secures the ball. Fluminense now has control in the opponent’s half for the first time.
6′
7:08 p.m
Ganso loses the ball in his own penalty area because he acts too slowly and then starts dribbling. City’s counter-pressing immediately takes effect and Lewis grabs the ball on the edge of the penalty area. First the youngster makes a mistake, but then his pass towards Álvarez is too imprecise. Fluminense makes some hair-raising mistakes in this initial phase!
4′
7:05 p.m
And the Europeans continue: Álvarez is played to the right by Walker and crosses flatly from the wing into the center. There the ball is deflected by a defender and then rolls into Fábio’s hands. City starts very dominantly here.
1′
19:02
Great for Manchester City, 1-0 by Julián Álvarez
The very early lead for the favorite! Marcelo wants to hit a ball towards Cano, but plays it right into Aké’s feet. The Dutchman has a lot of space, walks in a central position 25 meters in front of the goal and shoots. His shot hits the left post, then Álvarez is quickest, who only has to push the ball five meters over the line from close range. Lightning start!
1′
7:01 p.m
The Polish referee Szymon Marciniak has cleared the game and the ball is rolling! The European team from Manchester has the first possession of the ball. Who will be crowned the best club in the world in this game?
6:49 p.m
In this final game, two opposing coaches’ philosophies collide: Pep Guardiola is an advocate of positional play and has trained his team for control and dominance. He and his team are always looking for free spaces. Fernando Diniz, on the other hand, actively seeks chaos and always wants to play in tight spaces and combine with superior numbers. His approach has so far hardly been used in Europe, but it speaks for itself with Fluminense’s success. The teams’ playing styles couldn’t be more different!
6:46 p.m
Compared to the semi-finals, City coach Pep Guardiola is changing to three positions: Rúben Dias, Lewis and Álvarez are new for Akanji, Kovačić and Matheus Nunes. Flumonense coach Fernando Diniz, who is also currently Brazil’s national coach, is leaving his starting eleven unchanged. The stars of his team are the Real legend Marcelo at the back left, and Zehner Ganso at Sevilla FC and central defender Felipe Melo also have European experience at Inter Milan, among others. Key players for the Brazilians could also be six André, who is currently linked to Liverpool, and top scorer Germán Cano.
6:37 p.m
Fluminense plays their season in the Brazilian Serie A in the calendar year, so it only ended a few weeks ago. The club from the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro finished the season in seventh place, but celebrated an outstanding success in the Copa Libertadores – the South American equivalent of the European Champions League -: In the final, Fluminense won 2-1 after extra time in an emotional game against the Argentine team Boca Juniors and won the Copa trophy for the first time in the club’s history as the best team in South America.
6:20 p.m
Although Manchester City is the reigning Chamions League winner and Premier League champion, Pep Guardiola’s team is currently struggling with a crisis in results. In the league it recently only won one out of six games and is therefore currently only in fourth place. At the moment the English dominator is more vulnerable than ever before. In the semi-finals of the Club World Cup, however, little of this was noticeable; City dominated the game for almost the full 90 minutes and made things clear with goals from Bernardo Silva, Mateo Kovačić and an own goal. The English go into the game today as heavy favorites.
18:12
As reigning Champions League winners, Manchester City qualified for the Club World Cup. Fluminense Rio de Janeiro, on the other hand, prevailed in the Copa Libertadores and can call themselves South American champions. City easily cleared the semi-final hurdle against Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds, winning 3-0, while Fluminense beat Cairo’s Al Ahly 2-0. Now the two teams decide between themselves who can call themselves the best team in the world.
5:55 p.m
Hello and welcome to the 2023 Club World Cup final! At 7 p.m., Manchester City will face Fluminense Rio de Janeiro at the King Abdullah Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.