{"id":302918,"date":"2023-12-19T23:25:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-19T23:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/?p=302918"},"modified":"2023-12-19T23:25:26","modified_gmt":"2023-12-19T23:25:26","slug":"the-last-step-pep-guardiola-tells-man-city-to-take-club-world-cup-chance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstons.com\/soccer\/the-last-step-pep-guardiola-tells-man-city-to-take-club-world-cup-chance\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The last step\u2019: Pep Guardiola tells Man City to take Club World Cup chance"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Pep Guardiola urged his Manchester City players to seize a potential \u201conce-in-a-lifetime\u201d opportunity after reaching the Club World Cup final.<\/p>\n
The Champions League winners set up a clash with Brazilian side Fluminense in Friday\u2019s showpiece in Jeddah with a comfortable 3-0 win over Japanese outfit Urawa Red Diamonds on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
City needed an own goal in first-half stoppage time to get their campaign up and running in Saudi Arabia, but strikes from Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva after the break secured a straightforward victory.<\/p>\n
City manager Guardiola told reporters at a press conference said: \u201cWe didn\u2019t win it (before) \u2013 it\u2019s the first time Manchester City are here.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the last step \u2013 a title the club doesn\u2019t have, so we\u2019ll go for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo play this final you have to have done incredible things \u2013 mainly to win the Champions League.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce we are here, maybe it is a trophy we play for once in a lifetime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s against Fluminense, a South American team, experienced, a lot of quality. I saw yesterday how good they are.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we are there. Tomorrow we will start to see Fluminense and try to do a good performance and win the title.\u201d<\/p>\n
City were without Erling Haaland for a fourth successive game due to a foot injury but were still far too strong for the Asian Champions League winners.<\/p>\n
They had already created numerous chances before defender Marius Hoibraten turned into his own net to give City the lead.<\/p>\n
Reds boss Maciej Skorza said: \u201cThey are the best team in the world in my opinion, but our plan didn\u2019t work in the perfect way.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe expected that possession would be huge in favour of Manchester City. We had our plan for counter-attacks, but this didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe this is the big difference in the physical aspect between the two teams and lack of experience of playing teams like City.\u201d<\/p>\n