Real Madrid vs Grêmio – Club World Cup Final Preview
By Alex McVey
Real Madrid are through to the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup, where the will face the Brazilian club Grêmio for the title. Here’s your preview of the match for Club World Cup Glory.
The pitfalls of the Club World Cup
Real Madrid had to fight much harder than anyone anticipated, but they ultimately got the result against Al Jazira that put them through to the finals of the FIFA Club World Cup tournament.
For Madrid, having to play in this tournament is something of a lose-lose situation. Anything less than a victory against these clubs with such fewer financial resources would be an embarrassment. But it’s not like winning the Club World Cup brings that much glory. Everyone knows that it’s basically a door prize for winning the Champions League the previous season, and the best thing Real Madrid would get is the “honor” of wearing the Club World Cup Badge.
On top of that, Real Madrid is now forced to play at least an extra ninety minutes ahead of their first El Clásico of the season. Real Madrid is already an incredibly injury-prone club. Now Madrid has to risk some of their stars health if they want to win this competition.
As if that weren’t bad enough, FIFA has ruled that any red cards picked up during the Club World Cup final will carry over into the next La Liga match. That puts Madrid’s players in the uniquely bad situation of having to avoid getting overly aggressive, while resting assured that they will get physically roughed up over the course of the match in an effort by the smaller club to keep things even.
Nevertheless, it’s hard to complain about Madrid’s current situation. Real are the historically one of the wealthiest clubs in the world. They have more than enough financial resources and squad depth to handle this competition. And with a bit of silverware, however unimportant it is in the long run, as the prize at the end, Madrid should still seek to take this trophy-winning opportunity seriously.
About Madrid’s opponent – Grêmio
Grêmio Foot-Ball Porto Alegrense, or Grêmio for short, plies their trade in the top tier of the Brazilian football league. Founded in 1903, the club from Porto Alegre has a storied history in Brazilian football. And, based on a weighted tabulation of their club’s victories, the website About Brazil ranked Gremio the seventh best club in the country’s footballing history.
They qualified to this tournament by winning the Club’s third Copa Libertadores, the equivalent of the UEFA Champions League for CONMEBOL. There, they defeated Mexican club Pachuca 1-0 to seal their spot in the final against Real Madrid.
Gremio have had a rough match schedule coming into this fixture. As The National report, Gremio had to play 14 matches to get to the final of the Copa Libertadores, followed by a tough two-legged fixture against Argentina’s Lanus at the end of November.
Nevertheless, Gremio will certainly come into this match invigorated by the prospects of beating Real Madrid to a Club World Cup title. For the teams outside of UEFA, the Club World Cup is always an “Everything to Win, Nothing to Lose” situation. As Gremio’s goal-scorer against Pachuca was quoted as saying in The National article linked above:
"It’s the final we’ve been dreaming about since the season started and since the Libertadores… It’s the final we want. We know they’re massive stars of world football, but on the pitch it’s 11 versus 11 and let’s just see who wins. We’re going to try and match them."
Gremio will be tougher competition than Al-Jazira, and Al-Jazira pushed Madrid to the limit in order to get the victory. Both teams will come into this match off the back of an exhausting fixture list. It will be a challenge for both clubs to maintain their intensity over the course of the ninety minutes.
Real Madrid have everything that it takes to win this match. But doing so while also avoiding injuries and suspensions along the way will be far from easy. As much as Zidane may talk about only having his eyes on the final, we would be kidding ourselves to think that FC Barcelona is not looming large in the back of his mind.
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