Manchester City came full circle and capped an unprecedented season in English football with the capture of the Club World Cup, their fifth success of the season after beating Fluminense 4-0 without setbacks, ending the spell that they could not break their pursuit of South. American football in this competition nor the Spanish Pep Guardiola’s encounter with history.
The first coach to win four Club World Cup titles, also with three different teams – two with Barcelona, one with Bayern Munich and this one with Manchester City – has led City to achievements that were unthinkable not so long ago. The Club World Cup rounds off a spectacular year that combines the conquests of the Premier League, the English Cup, the Champions League and the European Super Cup. The only thing that eluded him was the English Super Cup -Community Shield- that Arsenal took from him in the penalty shoot-out.
Manchester City have left no other loose ends this year, one step away from the legendary sextet, which extends Guardiola’s CV, already with 37 titles under his belt, and underlines the strength of the English champions in recent times.
The fourth Premier club to win the World Cup, after Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United, had a final without excessive surprises, an uneven match from the start that reflected from the start the distance between football on the Old Continent and that of Conmebol, without success since Corinthians defeated Chelsea in the 2012 edition.
And in one of the first actions of the game, City opened the score. In the first minute. Fluminense, who was convicted for his own mistakes, committed suicide. Marcelo had a big one, after a throw-in, a meaningless shot from him, in the no man’s land, where Nathan Aké was, who moved a few meters and fired a shot from very far away that deflected the post. There was Julián Álvarez, who beat Fabio with his chest. Only forty seconds had passed. It was the fastest goal in a Club World Cup final.
The mistake by the legendary Brazilian full-back, who was aiming to win his fifth Club World Cup after the four he won with Real Madrid, was decisive.
But City is not a team that throws away presents, on the contrary. The goal calmed Guardiola’s team, used to dealing with these types of finals, while it upset the Libertadores champions, who rushed in search of a draw that did not come.
Germán Cano and also Keno threatened, without too much conviction, shortly before Guardiola’s team scored the second just before the half hour. It was born from a long, deep pass from Rodri to Phil Foden, who looked for a pass to Jack Grealish or Julián Álvarez, in a better position. But defender Nino stood in the way and deflected the ball into his own goal.
In the last part before the break the game became restless. Fluminense got its big chance there with a point-blank header from the Colombian Jhon Arias that was deflected by Ederson into a clever intervention, such as the subsequent one from Fabio after a low shot from Grealish.
The changes hardly changed the panorama. Although Fernando Diniz introduced John Kennedy for Keno at half-time, his team did not improve in attack. At least not clear. Manchester City never lost control and they had chances to achieve a bigger victory, like Bernardo Silva’s.
His header hit the right post and was then met by goalkeeper Fabio, who denied another follow-up from Phil Foden.
It was City’s youth player who scored the third, completing the victory for the England team. In the 72nd minute he received a beautiful pass from the left, inside the penalty area, from Julián Álvarez. Foden did not fail as he defeated Fabio for a third time to seal the first Club World Cup in Manchester City’s history.
Julián Álvarez was established as man of the match and provided the finishing touch. The Argentinian opened and closed the scoring, who in the final stretch, from the front, after finding space, received a pass from the right from Matheus Nunes and completed the English victory and their success.
Source: El heraldo
I’m George Gonzalez, a professional journalist and author at The Nation View. With more than 5 years of experience in the field, I specialize in covering sports news for various print media outlets. My passion for writing has enabled me to craft stories that capture the attention of readers all over the world.
