Pep Guardiola shows respect for the essence of Brazil

"I love it. I love how they associate, the respect for the ball, I love it. I know perfectly what the team we are going to play against is like, enormous respect for the essence of Brazil," said Guardiola in the pre-match conference. from the press room of the King Abdullah Sports City stadium.

"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 conquering his fourth Club World Cup, after the two achieved with FC Barcelona, plus another with Bayern Munich, an experience that does not make him feel any less nervous.

"The emotion is there, it's about how you manage it, how long it stays in your head, that is the great challenge of the finals. I am aware that competing against South American teams is very difficult." On Friday, Manchester City will seek to close a historic 2023 in which it has already won four titles; Champions League, Premier 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 Fluminense represents, of which the Catalan coach highlighted "the experience of Felipe (Melo), Marcelo, the goalkeeper (Fábio), they can control emotions perfectly and they have talent ". "Cano is a forward 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 won the 1994 World Cup."

There is no talk of the Super League

"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 everything possible," he analyzed. With the press conference just a few hours after the announcement by the European justice system that the ban on the European Super League was contrary to law, Guardiola chose to remain cautious: "I'm not going to comment on that hours before playing the game." final of the Club World Cup. There is time to reflect, and the lawyers and the clubs will decide what to do."