The only guarantee to qualify for any future editions of the Club World Cup will be to win the Champions League. And Manchester City’s boss Pep Guardiola knows how difficult that competition is to win, having taken seven attempts to win it at City finally last year.Tonight, the Cityzens face the Copa Libertadores winners, Fluminense, in the CWC showdown. ##NAJAVA_MECA_7759490####EDITORS_CHOICE##For the Spaniard, it’s a chance to enjoy the moment but also to acknowledge the difficulty of achieving the same in the years to come…”How do we do that? How do we play in a final without emotions?”, Guardiola asked on the eve of City’s ‘once in a lifetime’ world championship final.”Emotion is there, it’s how you handle it. Fear and doubts are there. It’s how long it stays in your mind. That’s the big target in finals.”It’s the fourth time I am here. The first time at Barcelona in 2009, we scored in the 93rd minute to go to extra time. We were favourites, but we were out. That’s when I realised the competition from Brazil and South America is so difficult.”Pep Guardiola has never faced a team like Fernando Diniz’s before. He’s preparing for a unique challenge as Manchester City’s Positional Game squares off against Fluminense FC’s Non-Positional Game! pic.twitter.com/iqlSXrj33v— Prof. Pedro Mendonça (@PedMenCoach) December 21, 2023 Guardiola can’t guarantee if City will ever be back in this situation – and if they win, it is a title that will ‘remain forever’.”It’s a different competition, but it will be a good boost for us, yeah,” he said. “For Christmas time, it will be better, that’s for sure, but the reality is it’s a completely different competition. It’s a different environment. It’s so difficult to come here, to win the Libertadores or the Champions League; both competitions are really tough; just prepare and give all we have; it’s something that remains forever.”The Premier League [is there] this season, next season, next season. I don’t know if we’ll come back to play a final for the World Cup. We need to understand what they do, try to impose our game.”CLUB WORLD CUP – FINALFriday 17.30: (1.35) Man.City (5.50) Fluminense (10.0)***odds are subject to change
