Today's win meant that Manchester City were adding a 5th trophy of 2023 to their illustrious cabinet, as well as Pep Guardiola's 4th club world cup. Many would've expected City to win today, and the scoreline accurately reflects what was a shrewd and assured performance from the European champions.
City were able to take the lead in minute 1 after a Nathan Ake shot from outside the box smacked the post and rebounded into the path of an unmarked Julian Alvarez, who chested the ball diligently into the empty net. City's second came as a result of a line-breaking pass from Rodri into Phil Foden, who's attempted cross across the box was deflected into the goal by Fluminense centre-back Nino.
City's third came late in the 72nd minute from some neat inter-play between the City front players, resulting in Alvarez driving into the left hand side of the box to deliver a perfect low-driven ball into Foden for a simple tap-in. Alvarez capped off a phenomenal performance from the front with a stellar shot from just inside the box to seal the club world cup for his side.
Fluminense did force Ederson to make a save from a header as a result of a corner, but the attempt was ruled offside anyway. Fluminense thought they had won a penalty early in the first half but the run made by the Fluminense attacker was deemed offside by the automated offside system of VAR. Outside of these attempts however, Ederson was scarcely troubled.
Here are four things we learnt from this encounter.
Alvarez and Foden were unplayable
Foden and Alvarez formed quite the formidable duo and proved too much for Fluminense to try to contain. From minute one Alvarez was switched on, evidenced by how alert he was when the rebounding ball was heading in his direction. Not only did he set himself up to be in the trajectory of the ball, he had to quickly adjust and make sure he was able to chest the ball into the net and avoid using his arms.
Whilst Rodri was the metronome in midfield, Alvarez assumed the role of a secondary metronome up front, always making sure that his actions on the ball were purposeful and progressive. His assist for Foden was representative of his and Foden's collective willingness and intent to attack and get in-behind the Fluminense back-line.
At times Foden was so high up the pitch that him and Alvarez were forming a front two, and this resulted in City's wide players often being left in acres of space due to Foden and Alvarez constantly attracting players to them centrally. Foden was also among the most fouled players on the pitch, which was mainly because the Fluminense defenders were aware of how much danger he was causing them whenever he got on the ball.
City stayed true to their principles until they inevitably broke Fluminense down
Even though Fluminense's football was much more direct and exciting, City stood firm during the waves of Fluminense transitions and whenever City did get the ball back they went back into their 3-2-5 settled possession shape. City have enough quality whereby they are rarely ever forced to adapt to the type of game-state they are in - City are usually the team that dictates the game-state.
City were perfectly aware that chances would inevitably fall to them as long as they kept possession for extended periods of time. This is why the wide players regularly hugged the touchline so that the central players could show for the ball more. Out of possession City were particularly impressive too, as whenever a Fluminense player got on the ball in the box he always ended up surrounded by at least 3 City players.
Credit to Fluminense for sticking to their principles, but City also stuck to theirs and their principles are the best principles of any team in the world.
Fluminense weren't good enough out of possession
Outside of possession Fluminense weren't really able to trouble City's buildup or settled possession which is fine, as troubling City's groove in possession is a gargantuan task for most teams in Europe. This is why teams must be compact and disciplined defensively when facing City however, and this simply wasn't the case.
Early in the first half and past the 70th minute in the 2nd half City were able to bypass the Fluminense press with relative ease, as the gaps between midfield and defence for the Brazilians were often too wide. Compactness was also a key issue in the Fluminense back-line, as often the space between the fullback and the centre-back was too wide, resulting in a pass to a City wide player in-behind almost always being on.
Two of City's goals resulted from a City player being able to get the ball into the half-space, and City could've scored more goals from exploiting this defensive issue alone.
Fluminense were exciting with the ball
Whilst Fluminense's worries without the ball were clear to see, with the ball they played an exciting and risky brand of football. They were very intent on playing out from the back at all costs, even when their goalkeeper Fabio was pressed by multiple City players. There were quite a few moments during the games were Fabio displayed great composure on the ball to confidently evade the City players that were trying to press him.
The Fluminense back-line defenders are given the freedom to carry the ball over extended distances if it means that they will bypass City's press, however this did lead to quite a few turnovers in the mid 3rd for Fluminense. What was also noticeable was how much progressive responsibility Fernando Diniz allowed Marcelo to have, despite his age. It is still eminently clear that Marcelo has not lost his magic touch with the ball, as at times he was very for the City players to press.
Marcelo inverting into the midfield helped Ganso and Matheus Martinelli retain possession and progress it, as their holding midfielder Andre was very regularly dropping into a back three or four to aid the centre-backs in playing out. The buildup patterns of Fluminense were very fluid.
One suggestion of improvement that could be made for Diniz and his team is to make sure that the forwards in the team can benefit from the football, as the forwards today weren't nearly as threatening as they should've been.