Pep Guardiola will draw on his childhood memories of watching Brazil as he aims to secure Club World Cup glory for Manchester City.
City face the Brazilian winners of the Copa Libertadores, South America’s equivalent of the Champions League, in Saudi Arabia on Friday for the global title.
Manager Guardiola admits City have not faced the like of Fluminense before but is familiar with their style having grown up watching and admiring some of the great Brazil sides.
The Spaniard told reporters at a press conference: “We have to be resilient because of the way they play – they will demand a lot of effort – and try to be aware and precise with the ball.
“The way they play, we’ve never faced, never. We will have to impose our rhythm and our positional game as best as possible and do a good performance, because we know without a good performance and being resilient in the bad moments it will be so difficult to win the final.
“They play a typical Brazil style from the 70s, 80s, early 90s – until 1994, when they won the World Cup in the United States.
“I love it. I love the build-up. I love how they associate between each other, the respect (they have) all of the time for the ball.
“I know perfectly the team we are going to play and I have huge respect for the essence of Brazilian football.
“When I was a little boy, not even a teenager, I listened to my dad or my people (talk about) the way that Brazil had success with all previous generations. I saw it for many, many years.”
Champions League winners City secured their place in this week’s showpiece at Jeddah’s King Abdullah Sports City with a comfortable 3-0 win over Japanese side Urawa Red Diamonds on Tuesday.
Erling Haaland will again be missing and has now officially been pulled out of City’s squad for the tournament after missing their last four competitive games with a foot injury.
Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku, who were both training with the squad as they step up their returns to fitness, will also not feature but City remain firm favourites.
Guardiola said: “The players, of course, are ready. They know how important it is and what a pleasure it is to be here.”
Kleindienst receives maiden Germany call-up
Germany boss Julian Nagelsmann has handed a first call-up to forward Tim Kleindienst in his latest squad.
Kleindienst scored 12 Bundesliga goals for Heidenheim last season.
Those goals propelled Heidenheim to an eighth-place finish, and secured Kleindienst a move to Borussia Monchengladbach.
Since the start of last season, Kleindienst has contested the most duels (622) and made the most sprints (1216) of any player in the Bundesliga.
The 29-year-old has already netted twice for his new club, and with West Ham's Niclas Fullkrug out injured, Nagelsmann has given Kleindienst the nod for October's Nations League clashes with Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Netherlands.
"Kleindienst at Heidenheim performed well over an entire year and he has integrated himself well at his new club Borussia Moenchengladbach," said Nagelsmann.
"He has earned this. The injury to Fullkrug is a good opportunity to test Tim. He now has to prove himself."
Marc-Andre ter Stegen's long-term injury, meanwhile, means Oliver Baumann is a likely candidate to start in goal.
The Hoffenheim goalkeeper will be aged 34 years and 131 days on October 11, when Germany take on Bosnia.
Should Baumann play, he will become the third-oldest player to make his first appearances for Germany.
Germany squad in full:
Oliver Baumann (Hoffenheim), Janis Blaswich (Salzburg), Alexander Nubel (Stuttgart); Waldemar Anton (Borussia Dortmund), Benjamin Henrichs (RB Leipzig), Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich), Robin Koch (Eintracht Frankfurt), Maximilian Mittelstadt (Stuttgart), David Raum (RB Leipzig), Antonio Rudiger (Real Madrid), Nico Schlotterbeck (Borussia Dortmund), Jonathan Tah (Bayer Leverkusen); Robert Andrich (Bayer Leverkusen), Chris Fuhrich (VfB Stuttgart), Pascal Gross (Borussia Dortmund), Jamal Musiala (Bayern Munich), Alexander Pavlovic (Bayern Munich), Angelo Stiller (VfB Stuttgart), Florian Wirtz (Bayer Leverkusen); Serge Gnabry (Bayern Munich), Kai Havertz (Arsenal), Deniz Undav (Stuttgart), Tim Kleindienst (Borussia Monchengladbach).
O'Neil hoping for Wolves lift-off at Brentford
Gary O'Neil believes one victory is all it will take to provide lift-off for Wolves' season, as the Premier League's bottom side prepare to visit Brentford on Saturday.
Wolves have taken just one point from their first six matches of the season, having last failed to win any of their first seven games of a top-flight campaign when they finished bottom in 2003-04.
They fell to a 2-1 defeat to leaders Liverpool at Molineux last week and have also faced Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle United and Aston Villa in a daunting start to 2024-25.
O'Neil believes their performances have warranted better results and insists his team retain the backing of supporters, saying: "The lads always show that they're not a group that can't bounce back.
"When we lost to Arsenal, we went full throttle against Chelsea. Then we went full throttle against Newcastle and we suffered a late defeat. We go to Aston Villa, and we go again.
"We're ready to go again and that will always be the case. Everyone in this football club is doing absolutely everything they can, myself included. I'm really disappointed for the lads because they deserve something to show for their efforts at this moment.
"We just need to find a way to get that first win on the board, then we'll be able to push off."
Brentford, meanwhile, sit 12th in the table with seven points, after drawing 1-1 with West Ham last time out.
Goalkeeper Mark Flekken has made a solid start to 2024-25 after initially struggling to adapt to the Premier League when first joining the Bees last year.
Speaking to the club's official website about his upturn, the former Freiburg man said it was his goal to become a player coach Thomas Frank could always depend on.
"I want to put in the same performances that I did during the second half of last season, but over the full year," Flekken said.
"I'm not the person that seeks out to be decisive in a game; if the boys keep everything away from me, that's better. I want to save those one, two, three shots on target where the team needs me. That is my goal, to be that person they can rely on."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Brentford – Bryan Mbeumo
Mbeumo's goal against West Ham last time out was his 48th Premier League goal involvement (27 goals, 21 assists), the outright most of any Brentford player.
The Cameroonian is looking to score in three consecutive league games for the first time since December 2019 (a run of four in the Championship).
Wolves – Matheus Cunha
So much of Wolves' attacking play goes through Cunha, and the Brazilian will have a pivotal role to play if they are to get up and running here.
He has had more shots (16), created more chances (nine), had more touches in the opposition box (25) and played more passes into the box (30) than any other Wolves player in the Premier League this season.
MATCH PREDICTION – BRENTFORD WIN
Brentford won 2-0 at Wolves in February, with the Bees last winning consecutive league games against them in the 2015-16 Championship campaign.
But Wolves have a strong record in West London, going unbeaten through their last five away league games against Brentford (three wins, two draws), winning two of their three visits in the Premier League including a 4-1 triumph last December.
O'Neil's men have also won three of their last four Premier League away games against London sides, as many as they had in their previous 21 such visits (four draws, 14 losses), though they did lose on their only visit to the capital so far this season (0-2 at Arsenal).
Wolves have, however, conceded 16 goals from just 9.8 expected goals against (xGA) in the Premier League this season, the worst such difference so far this term (-6.2). Brentford will hope their porous showings continue on Saturday.
The Bees should be wary if they do hit the front though, having dropped a league-high 38 Premier League points from winning positions since the start of last season, including eight already in 2024-25.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Brentford – 47.4%
Wolves – 27.9%
Draw – 24.8%
'This is the year' for Arsenal, says Saka
Bukayo Saka believes this is Arsenal's year to end Manchester City's reign over the Premier League, ahead of winless Southampton visiting the Emirates Stadium on Saturday.
Arsenal and City are the only unbeaten teams in the Premier League after six matchdays, with both taking 14 points to trail Liverpool by a single point at the summit.
Mikel Arteta's team secured a thrilling 4-2 win over Leicester City last week before seeing off Paris Saint-Germain by a 2-0 scoreline in the Champions League on Tuesday.
With many tipping Arsenal to again challenge City, particularly after the champions lost midfielder Rodri to a serious knee injury, Saka believes the Gunners have a golden opportunity.
"I don't want to put too much pressure on us but I do think that this is the year," Saka told CBS Sports after the win over PSG.
"I think we've been close the last two years and we're getting closer but this hopefully will be the year."
Speaking to Amazon Prime, the 23-year-old later added: "Previous years, I've come runners-up a lot. It's just that spirit in me that I want to win this season and of course, I believe in myself a lot.
"With those two things, it helps. We believe in ourselves, we believe we're a top team. I did tell the boys we have to make a statement when teams are coming to the Emirates."
Southampton have taken just one point from six league games since winning promotion from the Championship, making this the joint-worst start to any league campaign in their history (also one point in the top flight in 1998-99).
They were beaten 3-1 by south coast rivals Bournemouth last time out on Monday, leading defender Taylor Harwood-Bellis to slam their performance levels.
"I think it's just about taking ownership as players, doing your bit and not going inside yourself, not playing a solo game," he said.
"It's just about sticking together... we cannot be 3-0 down with the quality and characters we've got in that group, we cannot be. That's obviously including myself."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Arsenal – Kai Havertz
One player who has particularly enjoyed turning out at the Emirates lately is Havertz, who netted against PSG on Tuesday and has also scored six goals in his last six league games on the ground.
He has netted in four successive home Premier League games, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang the last player to score in five straight for the Gunners, in September 2019.
Southampton – Aaron Ramsdale
Former Gunners shot-stopper Ramsdale could become the ninth goalkeeper to face Arsenal in the Premier League after previously representing them in the competition.
Only one of the previous eight, Aston Villa's Emiliano Martinez, has previously kept a clean sheet in his first such match, doing so in a 3-0 victory at the Emirates in November 2020.
MATCH PREDICTION – ARSENAL WIN
Southampton have actually caused Arsenal problems lately, going unbeaten through the teams' last three Premier League meetings (one win, two draws), with both of their matches in 2022-23 finishing level – including a 3-3 draw at the Emirates.
However, Saints have visited Arsenal 24 times in the Premier League without ever tasting victory, drawing eight times and losing 16. That is the most any team has visited another in the competition without winning.
Arsenal are unbeaten in their last 28 home league games against Southampton since a 1-0 defeat in November 1987. Only against Fulham (a current run of 31) have they had a longer unbeaten home run in their league history.
Across 2024-25 and their relegation season in 2022-23, Southampton are now winless in 19 Premier League matches, drawing five and losing 14. Only once in their top-flight history have they endured a longer such run, going 20 games without a victory between August and December 1969.
Arsenal, meanwhile, are unbeaten in their last 40 Premier League home games against promoted clubs, winning 35 and drawing five. Only Chelsea (43 between 2001 and 2015) and City (41 between 2007 and 2020) have had longer such runs in the competition's history.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Arsenal – 78.5%
Southampton – 8.7%
Draw – 12.8%
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
