Guangzhou Evergrande FC’s coach Luiz Felipe Scolari of Brazil gestures as he arrives a press conference venue at the FIFA Club World Cup soccer tournament in Osaka, western Japan, Saturday, Dec. 12, 2015.
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Guangzhou Evergrande celebrate Paulinho’s late victor.
Lionel Messi’s Barcelona are runaway favourites to win the tournament for the third time in seven years but they know that Scolari, in charge of their Chinese opponents since June, is not going to make life easy for them.
“I’m not happy with this result, ” Club America coach Ignacio Ambriz said.
“Even without Neymar, Barcelona has many great players, ” Scolari said.
Scolari assured Brazilians back home that he had moved on from that traumatic defeat, which plunged the country into a state of mourning. “I continue with my career as a professional, no matter the country you are in”.
“I was really pleased with how disciplined we were”.
Scolari, who boasts a big-name line-up including former Real Madrid striker Robinho and one-time Spurs midfielder Paulinho, attempted to apply some psychological pressure on Club America. “Under Lippi we were very much an attack-minded team, but Scolari has transformed us into a much more all-round team, capable of attacking and defending well. So, we have to prepare for the game as every with game to get the victory”.
Club America captain Rubens Sambueza refused to be drawn into the mind games, however. “We’ve seen videos of (Guangzhou)”.
“Our Chinese players are good and several of them would be able to play in European leagues”, he said.
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The other semi-final takes place the day before (on Wednesday) in Osaka and pits Japanese champions Sanfrecce Hiroshima against Argentina’s Copa Libertadores holders River Plate.
