The European champion club team of Spain will face against the Guangzhou Evergrande FC of China in the Club World Cup semi-final match in Yokohama Thursday, Dec. 17.
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Rio de Janeiro, Dec 16: Lionel Messi has praised the “enormous growth” of Barcelona teammate Neymar since 2011, when the pair were opponents in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.
Speaking ahead of the tie with Evergrande prior to being forced out with injury, Messi told the BBC of his excitement of repeating the trick of winning a plethora of trophies, a feat they achieved under Pep Guardiola in 2009.
FIFA.com caught up with Guangzhou Evergrande’s Zheng Zhi to ask how they planned to halt the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez. These titles are an indelible legacy in the history of the club. “His absence would affect any team aside from Barcelona, who have 25 players of a similar style”.
“We came through a lot of hardship to get here”.
“We are getting better day by day and I’m very grateful to my players”.
“But my players have the heart and the desire to make a game of it and I expect them to show that tomorrow”. “Their captain [Zheng Zhi] is a great player”. Of course, we’ve not lost our ideology of keeping hold of the ball, that’s our trademark and our priority: “to control the play and keep possession as much as we possibly can”, he added.
“I don’t need to say anything to my players to give them any extra motivation”, Scolari insisted. We’ve now got the confidence of winning our opening match and that will hopefully give us a platform to build on for the next game.
Though the Blaugrana should win comfortably if they play anywhere near their top level, they will nevertheless have to be cautious. “But we won’t play any differently just because we’re playing a team we haven’t played before”.
The Copa Libertadores champions will take on Sanfrecce Hiroshima in the semifinals on Wednesday, a team that has already won two games in the competition without conceding a goal. In my whole career I ” ve only played against an Argentinian club once, and it was that final against Estudiantes.
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Scolari will hope Brazilians Paulinho, scorer of a dramatic late victor to break Mexican hearts, and Robinho, the former Real Madrid striker, can spark a good performance against a Barca side who have drawn their last three games.
