Guardiola Describes Man City’s Club World Cup Final As “Once In A Lifetime” Chance

Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has described his team’s qualification for the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup final as a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity.

Guardiola and his boys, who were without their injured talisman, Erling Haaland, faced Japanese club, Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-finals of the 2023 Club World Cup on Tuesday night, December 19.

The Japanese team showed incredible defensive resilience right up to the end of the first half before defender Marius Hoibraten turned Matheus Nunes’ cross into his net.

Not long after the break, Mateo Kovacic scored City’s second goal. He did this by grabbing the ball from Kyle Walker and sending his shot over Urawa Red’s goalkeeper, Shusaku Nishikawa.

Shortly before the hour mark, Nishikawa stopped Nunes’ low effort into the bottom right corner for the Asian champions. Portuguese forward Bernardo Silva followed that up to score City’s third goal.

City aspires to become the fourth English club to win the Club World Cup, after Manchester United, Liverpool, and Chelsea.

But their coach, Guardiola, had won the competition once during his three-year tenure at Bayern Munich and twice as FC Barcelona manager.

And it seems likely that the Spanish tactician will add to that collection, given how easily City defeated the Asian champions.

After helping City to qualify for the Club World Cup final, Guardiola said: “The players know how important it is for the club.

“To be in this final, you have to do incredible things like win the Champions League. This may be the only time we play this in our lifetime.

“We are there. We will try to win a title we don’t have and finish the circle.”

Manchester City and Fluminense of Brazil, who defeated Al Ahly 2-0 in the first semi-final on Monday, will clash in the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup final in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, December 22.