For Manchester City, the Club World Cup is truly a holiday.

In the evening, the players went out shopping and basically returned with a lot of money.

Only Glory and Kaka seemed a little lonely.

However, they soon vented this feeling on the court.

On 15 December, the semi-finals of the Club World Cup kicked off, with European champions Manchester City making their debut against Asian Cup winners Al Sadd.

In this game, Benitez still gave FIFA a lot of face, and he didn't use any second-tier lineup to fool the audience and opponents.

Basically, Manchester City's main players have started the game.

The most popular Glory and Kaka all appeared, forming a trident with Ibrahimovic.

Although the main players are on the field, it can be seen that the fighting spirit of the players is not very high, and they are tired, so Manchester City's table is not very good.

In comparison, their table is not as positive as Al-Ssad's players.

Although before the game, Al-Sadd's head coach Fawcetti had half-joked: "I really want to ask FIFA to allow us fifteen or sixteen players when we play Manchester City, so that we have a chance to win." ”

However, when the game started, it was still clear that Al Sadd was not as scrappy as they said.

They are very positive and want to compete with Manchester City.

However, Arsa's efforts failed in the seventeenth minute.

In the seventeenth minute, Rongguang in the penalty area received a cross from Sneijder, cushioned the football with his chest, and then turned directly and volleyed with his foot!

The ball rushed into the goal at great speed, and the goalkeeper of Al Sadd didn't react at all!

"The ball is in! Nice turn volley! Pretty!! ”

CCTV, which broadcast the whole process, also filmed He Ping coming to the scene to explain the game, and after Rongguang scored, He Ping shouted excitedly.

And the Japanese fans in the stands were even more excited than him.

As a world-class football player, Eimitsu also has a large number of fans in Japan, although most of his fans are men......

Three minutes after Glory's goal, Kaka also scored.

This time it was his trademark long-range shot, and after dribbling past an Al Sadd player, Kaka curled his foot from the top of the penalty area and fired a long-range shot into the back of the net after rounding the goalkeeper's ten fingers.

In just twenty minutes, City were already two goals ahead of Al Sadd.

Sure enough, the gap between the European champions and the Asian champions is huge.

Manchester City beat Al Sadd with just two men to put the semi-final out of suspense.

After the goals of Glory and Kaka, Manchester City still maintained their previous appearance, nonchalant and slightly tired.

But Al-Ssad's side has no way of taking such a Manchester City.

In the second half, there was even a mistake between their goalkeeper and defender, allowing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to pick up a slip and score with ease.

It's 3:0.

Benitez then made a substitution, bringing on Kaka and Sneijder, as well as centre-back Godin, and Milner, Gareth Barry and Lucio.

The rest of the time, City began to play the ball on the pitch leisurely. This team that plays mainly defensive and counter-attacking in the European arena naturally has no need to continue to defend and counterattack when facing a team that is several orders of magnitude weaker than them, and they firmly control the football at their feet, passing back and forth, and using the pass to mobilize the opposing players.

Al Sadd's players can only run around with the football.

In such a move, there was a hole in their backline, and this is when Manchester City quickly accelerated, seizing on their hole to strike hard.

In the 77th minute, Manchester City scored a goal from substitute James Milner, 4-0.

The scoreline was settled here as Manchester City beat Asian champions Al Sadd 4-0.

Reached the final of the Club World Cup.

In fact, it is very normal for the European champions to reach the final, and if they can't even make it to the final, that's big news.

There are even those who feel that it is not necessary to let the European champions participate in the semi-finals, just play the final, and let the champions from all continents of the world first fight the host country to determine a place in the final.

Letting the European champions play in the semi-finals is complete formalism.

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Three days later, Manchester City will face Copa Libertadores champions Santos in the final at the Yokohama Stadium for the Club World Cup final.

The Club World Cup was held for the first time in 2000 and then for the second time in 2005.

But this kind of European club championship vs. South American club championship has actually existed for a long time.

Originally, this competition was called the Intercontinental Cup, which stands for "Europe/South American Cup", and in 1990 the South American Football Confederation and the European Football Federation jointly organized the first Intercontinental Cup. The rules of the game are simple, it is the winner of the European Champions Cup against the winner of the Copa Libertadores.

In the beginning, it was a two-legged home and away system, and the winner was determined by points. If the points are tied, another play-off is played.

After 1968, the play-offs were abolished in the format, and if the points were the same, the winners were determined by goal difference.

However, this format is not very acceptable to European teams, because many European teams are reluctant to travel to South America to play an away game, and the fatigue of traveling will greatly affect their performance in the domestic league.

European clubs began to frequently refuse to participate in the continental cups.

It wasn't until 1980 that Japan's Toyota Corporation requested to host the tournament and gave each participating team 15 million Spanish pesetas to play the title.

Since then, the Intercontinental Cup has been renamed the "Toyota Cup", which is very familiar to Chinese fans.

The format has also changed from a two-legged match to a winner-winner, and the venue is fixed at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

In addition to the appearance fee, the best player in each edition of the Intercontinental Cup will receive a Toyota car provided by Toyota.

It has to be said that the sponsorship of the Intercontinental Cup has greatly helped Toyota to increase their visibility around the world, and at the same time, Toyota's sponsorship has also made European teams willing to go to Japan to play a game, which has solved the problems faced before the event. At the same time, thanks to the operation of the Japanese, the Toyota Cup has gradually become a very important event, and it is the honor that both the European and South American champions are willing to do their best to win.

Later, FIFA saw that the South American Football Confederation and UEFA, plus the Japanese, made this kind of Intercontinental Cup so good and well-known, and this is still a new idea to sell broadcast fees.

As a result, FIFA also intends to play a game similar to the Intercontinental Cup.

However, they decided to give full play to their FIFA strengths, and if they wanted to do it, they would make it bigger.

They don't play South American and European champions, they want to bring together the champions of all continents in the world except Antarctica for a vigorous World Club Cup!

In 2000, they held the first edition, inviting Manchester United, who won the 1999 UEFA Champions League, Real Madrid, the 1998 Toyota Cup, Corinthians, the 1998 Brazilian Liga champion, who was also the host, Vasco da Gama, the 1998 Copa Libertadores champion, Mexico's Necassa who won the 1999 CONCACAF Champions Cup, Al Nasser of Saudi Arabia, the 1998 Asian Super Cup winner, Casablanca of Morocco, the 1999 African Champions Cup. The 1999 Oceania Champions Cup champions South Melbourne in Australia took part in a total of eight teams.

It is held in Brazil.

However, that tournament was not a success. In the end, it was Brazil's host Corinthians who won the title.

Manchester United and Real Madrid did not have good results, with Real Madrid finishing fourth and Manchester United fifth.

Aside from the scary name, there is nothing to praise about this tournament.

Chaotic organisation, low-level competitions, reluctance to participate in European teams...... After the FIFA Club World Cup, FIFA temporarily abandoned the Club World Cup plan due to the inability to find a sponsor and other reasons.

It wasn't until 2005 that FIFA and the organizers of the Toyota Cup reached an agreement to merge the Toyota Cup and the Club World Cup, with the Toyota Cup disappearing and the Club World Cup replacing it as the only worldwide club competition.

The second Club World Cup in 2005 was held in Japan. This time, it is the champions of all continents, and it is no longer possible to participate in the domestic league championship and the Toyota Cup championship like the first edition.

In the end, Sao Paulo, the Copa Libertadores champion from Brazil, won the eventual title.

The 2006 Club World Cup was still held in Japan, won by the Brazilian team. Barcelona, the "Dream Team" who had just won the Champions League, lost to Brazil International in the final, which was also an upset.

As a result, the Club World Cup has been held three times, but the European team has not won the championship once......

No matter how much European teams think the Club World Cup is a chicken rib, if they can't even win the chicken rib title, doesn't that mean that they are very incompetent?

Now that European football is developed, it may make people think that European teams are better than South American teams. But that's not the case in history.

If you only count the number of titles in the Intercontinental Cup and the Toyota Cup, then the South American teams have a slight advantage.

They won the title 22 times, ahead of the 21 titles won by European teams.

If you only count the Toyota Cup, European teams do not have a clear advantage, and they are basically evenly matched with South American teams. European teams have won the title thirteen times, while South American teams have won it twelve.

However, with the development of European football professionalization, European teams began to show their strong strength in the main line, and those outstanding South American players have also left the American continent to play football in Europe to pan for gold, they represent European teams against South American teams, and help European teams beat South American teams and win the Toyota Cup.

Since the 1995 Toyota Cup, European teams have had the absolute upper hand, winning eight times to only two South American teams. The gap has widened.

And FIFA's Club World Cup has become an opportunity for South American teams to regain their dignity. The Club World Cup is the equivalent of a holiday for European teams, but South American teams are very concerned and work hard in the game.

It also helped them win their first three Club World Cups.

However, when European teams felt that it was too embarrassing to lose the Club World Cup in a row, the advantage of the South American teams was gone.

From 2007 to 2010, the four Club World Cups were won by teams from Europe. Bayern Munich, Manchester United, Barcelona and Inter Milan.

Now, in 2011, Santos from South America is tasked with justifying South American football.

Their fighting spirit is very high.

Against Manchester City, who are taking the Club World Cup as a holiday, maybe they really have a chance?