There is already the final of the Club World Cup. Guardiola’s City and former Real Madrid player Marcelo’s Fluminense will fight this Friday for the throne of the best team in the world. Crown not at all honorary but with great value. To the set of Guardiolawho played without Haaland and even without De Bruyne, It was difficult for them to defeat Red Urawa, although then the goals came slowly until they reached the final.
If the goal did not come due to City’s authorship, it was almost inevitable that it would happen due to an error in the defense of the Japanese Red Urawa. They were so locked in that a cross from the right served by Nunes was deflected, and with such bad fortune, by Marius Höibraten just when the stopwatch was already past minute 45 of the first half.
It was a ball that did not have, at least apparently, too much danger. But it became 0-1 because Guardiola’s team previously crashed against its own inefficiency: 13 shots, four on goal and four saves by Shusaku Nishikawa, a 37-year-old veteran goalkeeper.
Without ‘nine’
City was not lucid, despite monopolizing the ball in the first half with an overwhelming 77% possession. The Japanese? Defend and defend. And defend. Not a shot on goal. They hardly even set foot in Ederson’s area. Guardiola proposed an eleven without a pure ‘nine’, protecting Haaland as he does. Neither did he put Julián Álvarez, who should be the substitute center forward.
Guardiola opted to insert Bernardo Silva in that position, multifunctional footballer who can do everything. But he could not unlock the rival, entrenched around his goalkeeper.
There were 10 Japanese protecting Shusaku Nishikawa until Nunes appeared on the right flank to dismantle the Japanese structure with a cross that ended with Höibraten, a tall Norwegian defender, regretting having put his left boot where it shouldn’t have been. He finished as if he were Haaland to give the first goal to a dense City.
The Japanese melt
Afterwards, Bernardo Silva moved to the right flank, leaving the axis of the attack for Foden, a dynamic, mobile and undetectable forward, with a lot of activity away from the area.
From here, and with the score at 0-1, the Japanese team melted, allowing Kovacic to disguise himself as a center forward to burst into the area, making it 0-2, or for Bernardo Silva to also join in that second half full of efficiency in 0-3.
Guardiola then used the final half hour to rest his players thinking about Friday’s final against Fluminense.
Red Urawa: Nishikawa, Sekine, Scholz, Höibraten, Akimoto, Ito, Iwao, Okubo, Yasui, Koizumi y Kanté.
Coach: Maciej Skorza
Changes: Ogiwara por Ito (m. 57); Schalk por Okubo (m. 57); Linssen por Kanté (m. 64); Nakajima por Koizumi (m. 64); Shibato por Iwao (m. 78).
Manchester City: Ederson, Walker, Akanji, Aké, Stones, Rodri, Kovacic, Foden, Grealish, Nunes and Bernardo Silva.
Coach: Pep Guardiola
Changes: Bobb by Bernardo Silva (d. 64); Gvardiol by Akanji (d. 64); Julián Álvarez for Foden (d. 64); Sergio Gómez for Stones (d. 77); Kalvin Philips by Rodri (d. 77)
Goals: 0-1, Höibraten (m. 45+1); 0-2, Kovacic (m. 52); 0-3, Bernardo Silva (m. 59)
2023-12-19 20:35:35
#Manchester #City #fight #Fluminense #Friday #throne #team #world
