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Man City vs Fluminense – Club World Cup final: TV channel, team news, lineups & prediction

Manchester City are aiming to capture their fourth title of 2023 when they take on Copa Libertadores champions Fluminense in the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup final.

City’s Champions League success ensured they qualified for this competition, and Pep Guardiola’s side cruised past Urawa Red Diamonds in the semi-final despite their recent domestic indifference.

They’ll become the fourth Premier League club to lift the Club World Cup should they down Fernando Diniz’s enterprising outfit on Friday – Liverpool and Chelsea have both won the world title since 2019.

Fluminense claimed their maiden Libertadores victory in November and progressed into Friday’s final following a comfortable 2-0 win over Al Ahly.

Here’s 90min’s preview of the 2023 Club World Cup final between Man City and Fluminense.

Man City vs Fluminense H2H record

This will be the first competitive meeting between the two clubs.

Current form (all competitions)

Country

TV channel/live stream

United Kingdom

discovery+, TNT Sports 1, discovery+ App

United States

N/A

Canada

N/A

Kevin De Bruyne, Erling HaalandKevin De Bruyne, Erling Haaland

The boys are back in town / Eurasia Sport Images/GettyImages

Guardiola deployed a rather experimental starting lineup in Tuesday’s semi-final win in the absence of Erling Haaland – there was no recognised striker included as Julian Alvarez only made the bench.

The City boss could opt for a similar team on Friday with Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne, and Jeremy Doku all unlikely to feature. Matheus Nunes and Mateo Kovacic both impressed last time out so could retain their places.

Ruben Dias could also be recalled to the starting lineup.

Man City predicted lineup vs Fluminense (3-2-4-1): Ederson; Walker, Dias, Ake; Rodri, Stones; Bernardo, Foden, Nunes, Grealish; Alvarez.

Diniz has a full cohort of players available for Friday’s final and he likely won’t make any changes to the side that beat Al Ahly 2-0 on Monday.

Thus, Real Madrid legend Marcelo as well as Premier League transfer target Andre will both start against the Cityzens in Jeddah.

Fluminense predicted lineup vs Man City (4-2-3-1): Fabio; Xavier, Nino, Melo, Marcelo; Andre, Martinelli; Arias, Ganso, Keno; Cano.

Friday’s final will be laden with tactical intrigue given Diniz’s reputation of developing ‘appositional play’ which contrast Guardiola’s more rigid ideals in possession.

There’s a certain chaos surrounding Dinizismo which City might find tough counter-acting, and the vulnerabilities they’ve manifested ahead of their trip to Saudi Arabia suggests Flu will have some success against the European champions.

This is bound to be a fascinating occasion that’ll likely be decided by a goal either way. Given what they’ve achieved in 2023, it’d be hard to write off Guardiola’s men.

Prediction: Man City 2-1 Fluminense

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90Mins

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