The Club World Cup starts in the UAE

The 18th edition of the World Club Championship (a tournament organized by FIFA between the winners of the club competitions of each of the six confederations and the champion of the host country) starts today in the UAE. The matches will be held from 3 to 12 February.

London Chelsea is going to the Emirates in the status of the winner of the Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup. Photo: REUTERS

Initially, the tournament was supposed to be held in Japan, but in September last year Tokyo abandoned this idea, as a result of which FIFA moved the competition to the Emirates. It is expected that the current club World Cup will be the last in the usual format, since later the tournament will be expanded to 24 teams. It will have to be held every four years, like the Confederations Cup before, completely replacing it.

In the first match of the starting tournament, the UAE champion Al Jazeera will host the Australian Auckland. The winner of this pair will play on February 6 in the quarterfinals with Al-Hilal club from Saudi Arabia (the winner of the Asian Champions League). Al-Ahli (Egypt) and Monterrey (Mexico) will compete for another ticket to the semifinals.

From the semi-final stage of the club World Cup, Brazilian “Palmeiras” and the main favorite of the competition, the winner of the Champions League “Chelsea”, will begin their performances. The Blues have never won this trophy before. They had a great chance in 2012, but in the final the British lost to Corinthians. According to the coach of the London team, Thomas Tuchel, his players will do everything possible to win another title.

– When you participate in such a forum, the only thing you care about is winning. Maybe if you don’t play in it, you have a slightly cool attitude towards this tournament. This is my personal opinion, maybe I’m wrong,” Tuchel noted.

Since the first draw of the club World Cup, only two representatives of the English Premier League – Manchester United and Liverpool – have won the prestigious cup. Chelsea have a good opportunity to become the third in this list and, following the triumph in the Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup, win another title.

The main favorite of the tournament is the winner of the Champions League Chelsea

– Such a chance does not come every day. I think it’s unnecessary to motivate the players in any way. Everyone understands perfectly well what needs to be done,” Tuchel summed up.

Meanwhile

The South Korean national team will play in the final stage of the World Cup for the tenth time in a row. In the match of the eighth round of the world Championship qualification in the Asian zone, Paulo Bento’s team beat Syria 2-0 on the road and secured a ticket to the competition in Qatar. Earlier, Brazilians, Argentines, Germans, French, Belgians, Spaniards, English, Dutch, Danes, Croats, Serbs, Swiss and Iran made their way to the 2022 World Cup. Plus Qatar will play in the competition as the host. The Russian national team can also join this company, which will play Poland at home on March 24 in the semi-finals of the play-off tournament. On the eve it became known that this meeting will not take place in the Luzhniki Stadium, as originally planned, but at the home arena of the capital Dynamo.