Man City boost ‘greatest club’ case with Club World Cup win

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — If there was any doubt earlier than, there is not now — Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City have earned their place among the many best membership sides in historical past.

Winning the Club World Cup on Friday was extra a box-ticking train than a real check of their capacity, however the champions of England and Europe are actually, formally, champions of the world. They did it with a largely comfy 4-0 win over Fluminense, who had been a objective down inside the primary minute and by no means appeared poised to come back again.

Guardiola spoke earlier than the sport about “closing the circle” and successful the one piece of obtainable silverware not already on his résumé with Manchester City. They did that, and it was carried out with the calm dominance that has been an indicator of the opposite 13 main trophies Guardiola has gained since arriving at City in 2016. Fluminense, the perfect crew in South America, managed simply two photographs on track as City turned the primary English facet to win 5 trophies in a calendar yr.

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“It’s a beautiful, beautiful day,” Guardiola stated. “I’m very pleased and I would like to say we had the feeling we would close the chapter, we won all the titles, there’s nothing else to win. I have a feeling the job is done, it is over.

“When I shut the chapter, it is for eight years of unbelievable work behind the scenes. I’ve a sense we’ve got carried out it. Now we purchase one other e-book and begin to write it once more. The final eight years, it is over.”

Arguments about the relative merits of football teams are destined never to be settled, but Guardiola’s City deserve to be part of the conversation.

There’s Arrigo Sacchi’s great Milan side and the Liverpool team of the 1970s and 1980s, which won the European Cup four times. There’s also Real Madrid’s back-to-back-to-back Champions League winners and Sir Alex Ferguson’s masterful Manchester United teams of the 1990s and 2000s.

Guardiola has another contender with his Barcelona team featuring prime Lionel Messi — but City’s achievements under the Catalan coach stack up against them all.

This is supposedly English football’s era of strength with a multibillion-pound broadcast deal fuelling title ambitions of six or seven clubs every year, but Man City have continued to thwart their best competitors in the Premier League. In Guardiola’s seven-and-a-half years, they’ve won the Premier League five times, as well as two FA Cups, four League Cups, the Champions League, the Super Cup and now the Club World Cup. City also won a domestic treble in 2019 and replicated United’s 1999 treble of the Premier League title, FA Cup and Champions League last season.

Having won the title in each of the last three years, Man City could win a record fourth in a row this season and, although it hasn’t been the smoothest of starts to their campaign, you would never bet against them.

“In Barcelona, 25 years later individuals discuss nice groups, 25 years later,” Guardiola said. “That means they’re actually good. I do not know what is going on to occur at City within the subsequent 15, 20, 25 years — perhaps we can be thought-about top-of-the-line groups in historical past.

“The consistency year by year, game by game, title by title, semifinals, finals, always there fighting for all the titles, it’s unbelievable.”

There are, in fact, inquiries to reply. Not least amongst them are the 115 expenses levelled at City by the Premier League, with allegations that the membership breached monetary truthful play guidelines between 2009 and 2018. But, based mostly purely on what has occurred on the pitch, Guardiola’s City have been exceptional.

Fluminense, lucky to get previous Al Ahly of their semifinal, had been by no means prone to put up a lot of a struggle, and any hope of inflicting a shock was over when Julián Álvarez scored the quickest objective in Club World Cup remaining historical past after 40 seconds.

Guardiola tried to speak up the Brazilian facet’s qualities earlier than kickoff — perhaps an try and preserve his gamers targeted as a lot as the rest — however there is a clear hole between the largest European golf equipment and the remainder of the world, which has meant the reigning Champions League winner has lifted this trophy in 15 of the final 16 years.

An personal objective from Nino after 27 minutes made it 2-0 to finish the sport as a contest. From there the one query was what number of would City rating. Phil Foden received a 3rd and Alvarez a fourth late on, however the fireworks from David Guetta’s elaborate pre-match present with Bebe Rexha had been by no means wanted as City gained a fifth trophy in 2023.

The one draw back was an harm to Rodri within the second half after a reckless problem from Alexsander. It was signal that, after hobbling off, Rodri was nonetheless capable of dance round throughout the presentation — City will want him if there’s going to be extra success this season.

Guardiola has 18 months left on his contract and nonetheless there’s time so as to add extra medals earlier than he walks away. The exhausting work, although, has already been carried out: City’s place among the many greatest ever is secured.