Fluminense Wants To Create History In The 2025 Club World Cup
JAKARTA - The Brazilian club, Fluminense, will face the team from the Saudi Arabian Pro-League, Al Hilal, in the 2025 Club World Cup quarter-finals, Saturday, July 5, 2025, early in the morning WIB, at the Camping World Stadium.
This party is the only quarter-final match without a team from Europe. Even so, the difference is clearly gaping. To the extent that Fluminense is not seeded.
Fluminense coach, Renato Gaucho, even dubbed his team a 'bad form' of all quarter-final participants.
That is, he considered Fluminense to be the only team to lose to prestige compared to the other quarter-finals, although there is still another Brazilian club, Palmeiras.
However, talking about financial resources, the 62-year-old coach considered his troops to be the poorest compared to major European clubs, such as Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, or Chelsea.
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Likewise when meeting Al Hilal, which is supported by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF).
However, Gaucho didn't want to bother too much. In fact, he is getting bigger. He even told his players to create history in the 2025 Club World Cup.
"We had this magical moment with Fluminense. We had the opportunity to play in the semifinals among the best teams in the world."
"I don't know when an opportunity like this will come again, if there is. Seeing all these teams (in the quarter-finals), Fluminense is a bad duck, at least in terms of finance."
"Football is determined in the field. We have certain difficulties in terms of budget so there is a gap with them (Al-Hilal)."
"Out on the pitch, they have different financial conditions, but on the pitch the story is different," said Gaucho, stressing that Fluminense is not afraid to face rich teams.
Fluminense managed to get through the group stage without defeat. They won one win and two draws in Group F.
In fact, they managed to hold Borussia Dortmund to a goalless draw in the group opener.
Even more surprising, Fluminense eliminated another strong European team, Inter Milan, in the round of 16 with a score of 2-0 on Tuesday, July 1, 2025 WIB.