Bernardo Silva, from Manchester City, analyzes Brazilian clubs and points out the disadvantage of Europeans in the Club World Cup
One of Manchester City’s stars, Bernardo Silva, took advantage of the eve of his team’s debut to analyze the Brazilian teams competing in the Club World Cup. In the Portuguese midfielder’s view, one of them appears “a little bit above” the others. He highlighted the difficulty of facing teams from Brazil and recalled the 2023 World Cup final against Fluminense, which the Citzens defeated 4-0 at the time.
“We happened to have this conversation when we were having lunch. Brazilian teams, their players, are very strong technically. It’s always very difficult to play against them. We had the experience of playing against Fluminense in the World Cup two years ago and we were impressed by the way they played, how difficult it was to steal the ball from that team”, began the Portuguese player, this Tuesday (17/6), in a press conference.
City’s number 20 also considered Flamengo to be ahead of the other Brazilian teams, despite the fact that they are also capable of playing at a high level. “I think that in recent years Palmeiras has been a very competitive team, Botafogo won the Libertadores last year, and this year Flamengo is a bit ahead. Therefore, any team can always compete with any other team, they are always difficult teams to play against. And as Portuguese people, we speak the same language and we wish them the best,” he continued.
Bernardo Silva pointed out that Brazilian teams are in better physical condition because they are halfway through the season.
“Physically, I think the Brazilian teams will be a little better prepared than us, since they are in the middle of the season and we are at the end. And even the weather conditions are quite similar. I think that in this tournament, all the teams are well prepared tactically and physically, a small detail will make a difference, the quality of the players and the organization of the teams also make a difference. But I think all the teams are very well prepared for it to be a good competition and a great fight between all of them”, he concluded.
Manchester City will debut against Wydad Casablanca, this Wednesday (18/6), at 1 pm (Brasília time), at Lincoln Financial Field, in Philadelphia, in the first round of Group G of the World Cup. According to the bracket of the FIFA Club World Cup, Manchester City could only face a Brazilian team from the quarterfinals onwards.
