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Kolkata: European giants Inter Milan and Manchester City being eliminated in a matter of hours by a club from Brazil and another from Saudi Arabia are results that can provide validation to the Club World Cup.
Simone Inzaghi wasn’t wide of the mark when he compared his new team Al-Hilal beating Manchester City 4-3 to climbing “Mt Everest without oxygen”; the round-of-16 result was being the best advertisement for Saudi Arabia since billions were poured into its football project. Fluminense’s story is even better: a club battling relegation last year are now among the best eight in the world, and they got there by surprising Inter Milan with an aggressive start and scoring very early (German Cano, 3) and very late (Hercules, 90+3) in the 2-0 win.
“Inter are a great team. They have much more money than us, but on the pitch it’s 11 against 11. The group believed, fought hard and stayed focused for the entire 90 minutes. Bravo!” said Fluminense coach Renato Gaucho.
Fluminense are 181st in an Opta power ranking list on clubs where Inter are in the top 10. They finished 13th in the Campeonato Brasiliero Serie A, 33 points behind champions Botafogo. It was some fall for the 2023 Copa Libertadores champions, the slide chewing up former Brazil coaches Fernando Diniz and Mano Menezes.
Gaucho, a former Brazil and Fluminense forward, took charge in April and has implemented his high-pressing style in a short time in a team whose defence is marshalled by Thiago Silva, 40, and whose goalkeeper Fabio is 44. Gritty goalless draws against Borussia Dortmund and Mamelodi Sundowns and a 4-2 win against Ulsan Hyundai brought the 123-year-old club from Rio de Janeiro up against the 20-time Serie A winners and thrice European champions.
Now, Al-Hilal stand between Fluminense and a semi-final berth in the 32-team Club World Cup that began in the USA on June 14. With some luck, Palmeiras could join them. The traditional giants of Sao Paulo play Chelsea having beaten Botafogo in an all-Brazilian round-of-16 clash. With Flamengo going down fighting against Bayern Munich, it has been a tournament for the giants of Brazil to show that they still matter.
Exactly how seriously Brazil took this competition can be gauged by the league being paused for a month to get the clubs – all of whom having qualified by winning the Copa Libertadores (South America’s equivalent of the UEFA Champions League) from 2021 to 2024 – ready. “Teams are playing every game like it is the final,” Flamengo coach Filipe Luis has said.
The idea of testing themselves against the best of Europe goes back to when Pele’s Santos beat Benfica and AC Milan to win successive editions of the Intercontinental Cup, a competition between winners of the Champions League and Copa Libertadores, in 1962 and 1963. In 1981, Zico starred in Flamengo beating Liverpool 3-0. Gremio (1983) and Sao Paulo (1992 and 1993) have also won this event.
Over time, even as the idea of continental supremacy got diluted, European clubs stamped their authority on the Club World Cup comprising six to eight teams before this. Santos lost 0-4 to Barcelona in 2011 and since Corinthians beat Chelsea in the 2012 final, no team from Brazil had defeated a side from Europe.
That changed this time. “Botafogo was the team that defended the best against us,” said Paris St-Germain coach Luis Enrique after the Champions League winners lost 0-1 in the group stage. Flamengo made the most of Nicolas Jackson’s 68th minute red card to beat Chelsea 3-1. And then Fluminense surprised Inter who finished second in the Champions League and Serie A.
A Reddit post shows that the four Brazilian teams have played more matches than most European teams in the last 12 months. But what can explain the uptick in performance is that Brazilian clubs are in the middle of the season while those from Europe are tired having had to stretch theirs to accommodate this tournament. Teams from Brazil being more used to the scorching American summer is another.
But above and beyond these are how Brazilian clubs have reshaped themselves, proof of which lies in winning the past six successive Copa Libertadores titles. “A European club who happens to be in South America,” World Soccer quoted an unnamed coach in Copa Libertadores as saying of Flamengo. Proceeds from selling Vinicius Jr and Lucas Paqueta have been channelled into building a solid squad.
The Athletic quoted Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano as saying that Palmeiras have “two, even three, high level players” in every position. “It is the same with Flamengo, Fluminense, Botafogo. They have invested a lot of money.”
John Textor, who has stakes in Crystal Palace and Lyon, has a stake in Botafogo; Bahia are part of the City Football Group and Bragantino are in the Red Bull stable. It means Brazilian clubs can afford to retain talent and in the case of Palmeiras forward Vitor Roque, pay €25m to buy him from Barcelona. Even after helping Colombia reach the Copa America final, attacking player Jhon Arias has stayed at Fluminense. Jefferson Savarino (Botafogo), Girogian de Arrascaeta (Flamengo) and Flaco Lopez (Palmeiras) have shone in the USA but are yet to play in Europe.
The path to Carlo Ancelotti being appointed Brazil coach was paved by Portuguese coaches at clubs. Step forward, Abel Ferreira (Palmeiras). Till the defeat to Palmeiras, Portuguese Renato Paiva helmed Botafogo. Foreigners can infuse fresh ideas and Portuguese coaches have won four of the past six Brazilian league titles.
In his column, Tostao, the 1970 World Cup winner, had asked readers if they could imagine how wonderful it would be if a Brazilian team were to win this edition. That the possibility exits is an acknowledgement to how well clubs from the land of five-time world champions have performed.
