2023 Club World Cup Final: Man City Expands Sleep Ahead Of Match Against Fluminense

JAKARTA - Manchester City did not make special preparations when facing Fluminense in the 2023 Club World Cup final match.

Pep Guardiola's manager ordered his players to sleep and sleep again so that they returned to fitness in a duel at the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium, Saturday, December 23, 2023, early morning WIB.

Man City hopes to leave a poor performance in the 2023/2024 Premier League competition. Failure to maintain competition with Arsenal and Liverpool will not affect last year's Champions League champions' focus when competing in the Club World Cup.

In the semifinals, The Citizens silenced Asian champions, Urawa Red Diamonds, with a landslide score of 3-0. Man City won through an own goal by Marius Hoibraten who was then scored by Mateo Kovacic and Bernardo Silva.

The success of stepping into the final made Guardiola hunt for the fifth trophy at the Club World Cup. If that is achieved, this former Barcelona coach will be the first to do so.

Guardiola once lifted this trophy with Barcelona and Bayern Munich. Meanwhile, Jack Grealish and his friends are chasing the first trophy following in the footsteps of other Premier League clubs, namely Liverpool, Manchester United, and Chelsea.

All English clubs have won it except Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa. Although both teams have won the Champions Cup (now the Champions League), at that time this interclub tournament had not yet been launched.

However, Man City will face a game that is not easy. Fluminense, who won the Libertadores Cup, is an elite Brazilian team.

They also have longer recovery time after beating African champion Al Ahly in the semifinals.

Guardiola said that Fluminense benefited a little because it played first. In order to prepare the team for the final match, Guardiola ensured that the players slept more.

"The plan (in the final match)? Yes, sleep, sleep, and sleep! That's our plan," said Guardiola when revealing the preparations for The Citizens in the final match.

"We just take more rest. They (Fluminense) have one day longer. We have one day of rest and dinner together. We bring the atmosphere so players know how important this trophy is for the club," he said.

"When we make sure to the final, we do things that I think are extraordinary. It's like when we won the Champions League. Next, we will show our best performance against Fluminense," Guardiola said again.

In the final match, Guardiola could not field the recovered Erling Haaland striker. Haaland and Kevin De Bruyne and Jeremy Doku were actually taken to Saudi Arabia.

However, they could not be fielded because the three of them were not included in the squad in the semifinal match against Urawa.