In Brazil today for the game and the media here are not happy with the assertions that City have already be crowned by the English/European media as runaway favorites! They think it’s disrespectful, once again, of their Confederation and their own achievements!
If it does become a 2-0 or 3-0 situation, I’d expect a few choice challenges coming into the game.
As for Fluminense, they’re not a bad team by any stretch, but are used to having time and space to play. I don’t think City will give them that, so that’ll be interesting to see how they respond.
There was a stat in the Red Diamonds game that states City took, on average, 16 seconds to recover the ball. If we can do anything even close to that in the Final, it’s hard to see how they can win.
Fluminense take more shots from the edge of the box than we are used to and do a lot of 1-2s in and around the box, either to beat the defender or draw the foul.
I think this is a VERY IMPORTANT GAME AND TITLE to the ownership of the club. Pep will play his best team and be pulling out all the stops to win. It’s a capstone on the best year in the club’s history and will give us bragging rights we may never see again.
I’d expect nothing less than leaving it all on the pitch for this one, and see our only weakness as susceptibility to the fast counter and the ball in behind. They do have some outside shooters and, as I said, will look for the quick interchange around the box to either free up the player or try to get a free kick/penslty.
Their “best” players are old European players (Melo & Marcelo) who have gone home for their final farewells, but they cannot, and should not, be taken lightly.
If we play at 80+%, we win. If they play anywhere close to 100% and we play anything less that 80%, they can make a very hard game of it and even win.