Club World Cup: the last-16 beckons after chaotic, surprising groups

Image: SounderBruce courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

It seems an age since the last newsletter, which dropped with you, erm, a week ago, when each of the teams at the Club World Cup had played their opening games. Chelsea and Man City had both started with wins, with Real Madrid held to a draw. Headline were often about grounds half-full, if that.

As the deadline for this newsletter arrived on Thursday, UK time, we pretty much knew the full line-up for the knockout phase, which begins tomorrow (Saturday 28 June) with two Brazilian clubs, Palmeiras and Botafogo, facing off in Philadelphia for a place in the quarter-finals.

Acknowledging the topsy-turvy nature of tournament football and its many twists and turns, we start today’s newsletter with most of the last-16 fixtures.

And then in helter-skelter order we’ll recap a lot of what has happened between last week’s newsletter and now!

The Club World Cup last 16

Date Fixture Location

28 June: Palmeiras (BRA) v Botafogo (BRA) in Philadelphia

28 June: Benfica (POR) v Chelsea (ENG) in Charlotte

The winners of the two matches above will meet in the quarter-finals

29 June: PSG (FRA) v Inter Miami (USA) in Atlanta

29 June: Flamengo (BRA) v Bayern Munich (GER) in Miami

The winners of the two matches above will meet in the quarter-finals

30 June: Internazionale v Fluminense in Charlotte

30 June : Juve or City v Probably Al Hilal Orlando

The winners of the two matches above will meet in the quarter-finals

1 July: Dortmund v Monterrey in Atlanta

1 July: Probably Real Madrid v Juve or City in Miami

The winners of the two matches above will meet in the quarter-finals

Foden struck early in opener to get his confidence back on track

The pod that dropped last Thursday evening discussed Manchester City’s opener in the Club World Cup, against Wydad of Morocco, and Juventus’s thrashing of Al Ain in the same group, and also Real Madrid being held to a draw by Al-Hilal. Gary and Alan were again joined by Alex Ajloe although Micah was otherwise engaged.

Alex had been to Philadelphia for a night to see City’s first match, a 2-0 win on Wednesday 18 June, thanks for goals from Phil Foden, inside two minutes, and Jérémy Doku just before half-time. Alex said the Wydad fans, who set the stadium alight (almost literally with their flares) have been up there with the most lively and passionate at the CWC, along with Boca Juniors’ fans.

Alex spoke to Foden after the match and asked him if it was a relief to score his first goal since January. And while some players are defensive when asked such a question, he replied: “Yeah, I am actually. And I need it. I need this confidence going into the new season.”

Foden was also delighted to receive the man of the match trophy, which is enormous, and almost as silly as the Club World Cup trophy itself, which has FIFA president Gianni Infantino’s name inscribed on it and spent some time ahead of the tournament sitting in President Donald Trump’s Oval Office.

Speaking of Trump, and silly events, Gary mentioned some of the Juventus players visiting Trump on the day of their first match (below) and how it became a surreal event as Trump openly talked about the possibility of bombing Iran. The Juve players simply looked bemused.

Juventus thrash Al Ain, and then so did City, even harder

Also in City’s Group G, on the same day they started their campaign, Juventus thrashed Al Ain 5-0. We don’t need to recap here that Alex thought pre-tournament that Al Ain could be dark horses and progress from the section along with City. In the pod that dropped on Tuesday of this week, the TRIF trio plus Alex talked about City handing out a thrashing of their own to Al Ain, this time 6-0 in Atlanta on Sunday.

Alex was there, covering the game at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium. “It was actually freezing,” she said. "At one point, it felt like a nightclub. At half time with the roof on, all the lights out, flashing lights everywhere. They were blasting out club anthems. But a really good atmosphere. Forty thousand in there as well.”

İlkay Gündoğan scored twice as City romped home, with 19-year-old Claudio Echeverri on the scoresheet alongside Erling Haaland, Oscar Bobb and Rayan Cherki. After two games for each team, and with Juve top and City second and both on six points, the only issue remaining was which would finish top after their own meeting on Thursday. 

We know that now (!), and thus which team will avoid the team finishing top of Real Madrid’s group in the last 16.

Trent AA made his competitive Real Madrid bow … in a disappointing draw

Real Madrid also played their first game on Wednesday 18 June, and had to settle for a 1-1 draw with Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia in Trent AA’s first match for the Spanish giants.

“I thought he was a little bit slow early on, in warming up,” said Gary. "But I thought he grew into the game and you saw a few crosses from him and he had lots of possession of the ball. He'll be glad to get that game out the way, won't he?”

Alex added: “I thought it was interesting what Xabi Alonso said after the game because he said, look, he's a really talented player, but talent isn't enough … He’s sort of making a statement by coming out and saying that and he said he needs to get better defensively.

“And that's how he looked, he was exposed at the back at times in that game. So I think in general, Real Madrid lack experienced high quality defenders.”

Alex also pointed out that Real Madrid had only had three training sessions under Alonso so there is much still to work on. This was the first time Madrid had lost a Club World Cup match since 2000 after an 11-game winning streak across the intervening years. Madrid then got a win on Sunday by beating Pachuca of Mexico 3-1.

Bellingham turf complaints headline

Real Madrid gave themselves a headache against Pachuca when Raul Asencio was sent off in the seventh minute and they had to play 83+ minutes with 10 men. But they were 3-0 up after 70 minutes before Pachuca’s consolation. Real had opened the scoring after half and hour via Jude Bellingham. 

Bellingham made the big headlines after the match by lambasting the quality of the pitches at the CWC. “The pitches aren’t great, honestly,” he told one interviewer. “I’m only saying it because you asked me but the pitches aren’t great at all … They hold up the ball, the way the body balances, it’s tough on knees as well. Hopefully they’ll look into that going into the World Cup next year. It’s important we protect the players and give those fans watching a spectacle and giving them great games as well.”

A tournament with early surprises, and strong South American displays

Gary noted that there had been some upsets in the first week, not least Madrid being held by Al-Hilal but also Monterrey - and 39-year-old scorer Sergio Ramos - sharing the points with Internazionale in their first match. Inter Miami, ranked No183 in the world in OPTA’s power rankings, upset Porto, ranked No64, by beating them 2-1, with Lionel Messi scoring the winner.

Also notable were the performances of the six clubs from the South American confederation, four of them from Brazil (Palmeiras, Botafogo, Flemengo and Fluminense) and two from Argentina (Boca Juniors and River Plate).

After those six had all played their first two games, only Boca had lost a match, with Palmeiras topping group A with four points, Botafogo topping Group B with six points, Boca third in Group C with a point, Flamengo topping Group D with six points, River Plate topping Group E with four points and Fluminense topping Group F with four points.

As Gary and Alex pointed out, the South Americans are only half-way through their domestic seasons and mostly look fresh and fit, while most of the Europeans, coming straight off the back of long domestic campaigns, looked knackered.

Alex, by the way, also shared that she came face to face with a shark and lived to tell the tale.

Kane more than able to send Bayern to the knockouts

In the pod that dropped early on Sunday morning, Gary, Alan and Alex discussed Chelsea imploding against Flamengo on Friday, which meant they were susceptible to crashing out in their las group game, and Harry Kane leading Bayern Munich into the last 16.

Kane scored one goal and provided the assist for Bayern’s second by Michael Olise in their 2-1 win over Boca Juniors. Alex was present along with a capacity crowd at the Hard Rock Stadium, Miami, to watch, and she interviewed Kane afterwards.

“He won player of the match, with a goal and assist for him,” she said. “It was a really good game, a sellout at the Hard Rock Stadium. It had a feel of a knockout game at a World Cup.

“The atmosphere was amazing, probably the best atmosphere we've had yet. Two very different halves of football, Bayern Munich were all over them in the first half. Then in the second half, Boca Juniors came back into it.”

Alex asked Kane about not scoring in Bayern’s previous match, a 10-0 win over Auckland City and he admitted: ‘You’re gonna be disappointed, of course you are!”

Boca’s Miguel Merentiel scored their consolation, which was a stunner.

Chelsea snatch defeat from jaws of victory after Jackson cock-up

Chelsea took the lead against Flamengo last Friday in their second group game and stayed ahead  until more than a hour was played, and then contrived to concede three times and lose 3-1, after Nicolas Jackson stupidly got himself sent off shortly after coming on.

“Not good,” said Alex. “And he was sent off towards the end of last season as well, wasn't he, against Newcastle? You think he'd have learnt from that. But yeah, I don't think we can even call it a tackle, can we?”

Chelsea did manage to win their final group game, 3-0 against Tunis on Tuesday, to progress in second place in Group D. In a shock on the same day in Group C, Benfica beat Kane’s Bayern 1-0 to finish that section top with Bayern in second.

And the shocking things about the CWC group stage were …

Attendances at the group stage matches have not been great. In the last few days in particular there were a significant majority of seats empty for Mamelodi Sundowns v Fluminense, for Dortmund v Ulsan, for Urawa RD v Monterrey and even for Benfica v Bayern.

The first 44 of the 48 group matches (before last night’s matches) had a total potential capacity of 2,767,895 seats and the total attendance had been 1,524,356, or 55% of capacity, with 1,243,539 empty seats. This dashboard has been keeping track.

As for footballing shocks by eventual group outcomes, it was a surprise Porto didn’t qualify from Group A while Inter Miami did. In Group B, rankings would have said Atletico Madrid should have qualified ahead of Botafogo - but didn’t. But there was nothing hugely shocking in any other group. Monterrey of Mexico progressed while River Plate of Argentina didn’t in Group E, for example, but their rankings are not that far apart.

And so to the knockouts …