Diniz praises Fluminense and says City is the best in the world – 12/22/2023 – Sport

After the 4-0 defeat to Manchester City in the Club World Cup final, Fernando Diniz, coach of the Rio team, regretted the result, especially the goal scored after 40 seconds, but highlighted his team’s year and even their performance. on Friday (22). He also praised Manchester City, calling Pep Guardiola’s team the “best in the world”.

“We faced perhaps the best team in the world in the last five years. They have a lot of capacity to define the game. We conceded the first goal very early, and the second, with everyone behind, we couldn’t [ter levado]. But the team tried to play. He played under high pressure all the time and managed to come out most of the time. We try to do our best. Congratulations to the players,” he said, still on the lawn of the King Abdullah Stadium, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

He also said that, playing against Manchester City, there cannot be “any gap”. “When we failed, they took advantage because they are very accurate,” he said.

Defender Nino, who scored an own goal in the decision, highlighted the team’s convictions. “Everything we achieved this year was because of our convictions. We didn’t deviate from our characteristics. There was a moment when we needed to reverse a result in the final and we managed to score because of these characteristics”, he said.

He was referring to the final of the Campeonato Carioca, against Flamengo, in April. Fluminense lost the first match of the decision 2-0 and won the second 4-1 to take the title.

Fluminense, in fact, tried to maintain its style against City. Especially in the first half, he managed to exchange a lot of passes and, on a few occasions, threaten the English goal. The best chance was a header from Jhon Arias, saved by Ederson.

Arias was voted the third best player in the World Cup, behind right-back Kyle Walker and midfielder Rodri, the latter the tournament’s gold ball winner, both from Manchester City.

At the end of the match, which had no violent moves, there was a beginning of confusion, with Jack Grealish and Kyle Walker on one side and Martinelli and Felipe Melo on the other. The Brazilian veteran even pushed Walker, but the temper was then contained.

The defeat suffered by the Rio team is the second biggest in a World Cup final, alongside the 4-0 defeat that Santos took from Barcelona in 2011. The biggest was in 1961, when Peñarol beat Benfica 5-0 in the game back from the intercontinental tournament — at the time, the decision was made over two matches, and there could still be an extra match if each team won one of the first two.