The CLUB WORLD CUP is seen through very different perspectives in football’s two most traditional continents.
In Europe – especially to the north – it is practically an irrelevance.
Flamengo fans are dreaming of Club World Cup glory at the expense of LiverpoolCredit: Reuters
That may be especially true this year, with Liverpool obsessed with the mission of finally winning the Premier League.
A trip to Qatar for the Club World Cup is being seen as a distraction, an inconvenience.
The most positive note in the British media so far has been sounded by former Reds star Harry Kewell, who thinks that the squad might benefit from a short break in the sunshine.
The South Americans, though, are not thinking of tourism. On the other side of the Atlantic this tournament is seen as the highpoint of the club calendar.
The winners of the Copa Libertadores will get a chance to have a crack at the holders of the Champions League!
Providing, of course, that both sides make it through their semi-final, a match that has always been a breeze for the Europeans and a torment for the South Americans.
Hundreds of thousands of Flamengo fans lined the streets to celebrate their Copa Libertadores triumphCredit: Reuters
Liverpool will face Flamengo in the final should both team win their semi-final clashCredit: Getty Images – Getty
Flamengo, the Rio giants who were recently crowned South American champions, can hardly wait. Their previous Copa Libertadores triumph came in 1981.
They followed it up by meeting the European champions in Japan, and winning 3-0. Their victims? Liverpool.
It is the greatest moment in the club’s history, and one they are desperate to repeat. Liverpool might want the Premier League, but Flamengo want the world.
Their fans are already singing about it. “Liverpool,” they chanted in the Maracana stadium last week, “your time is coming.”
That was at a league match against relegation threatened Ceara, who took the lead only to be blitzed away in the last 25 minutes and lose 4-1.
This was just four days after they had beaten River Plate in the Libertadores final on the other side of the continent, and three days after they had been confirmed as Brazilian league champions.
Goal machine Gabriel Barbosa – on loan from Inter Milan – will be looking to make an impact at the Club World CupCredit: AFP or licensors
Even so, there was no lack of intensity. The foot was full down on the pedal, as it was on Sunday when they visited Palmeiras, last year’s league champions who have been looking enviously on at Flamengo’s recent triumphs.
Palmeiras made it a big occasion. They rested key players in the previous game, and came out in search of a moral victory.
Flamengo steamrolled them on the way to a comfortable 3-1 win.
This is emphatically not a team in holiday mode. Last beaten on the 4th August, Flamengo want to keep the victories rolling all the way to the Club World Cup.
Ceara sacked their coach after last Wednesday’s mauling. Palmeiras parted company with former Brazil boss Mano Menezes after Sunday’s game – indeed, in early September when Flamengo thrashed Palmeiras in Rio, it cost the job of another former Brazil coach, the ex-Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari.
In all, five coaches in Brazil were sacked in the last few months directly after losing to Flamengo.
Whatever might happen in Qatar next month, Jurgen Klopp is very unlikely to meet the same fate.
The Club World Cup does not carry anything like enough weight with Liverpool fans. But for Flamengo, this is the biggest moment in 38 years.
Brazil legend Julio Cesar dramatically collapses and breaks down in tears as beloved Flamengo win Copa Libertadores
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
