Big guns ready to attack
Real Madrid and Man City enter Club World Cup, as Sergio Ramos says there can only be one winner
SIMPLY THE BEST: Sergio Ramos favours Real Madrid
Image: AFP
TWO of the big guns at the Club World Cup in the US will make their first appearances today, with Spain’s Real Madrid and England’s Manchester City getting to wys America what they’ve got.
Coach Pep Guardiola’s City are up first when they tackle Morocco’s Wydad in Group G at the Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia at 6pm, with Madrid in action against Saudi Arabia club Al-Hilal in Group H at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami at 9pm.
Guardiola vowed that his team will not take the tournament lightly and said: “This is a very, very serious competition. In the summer, the whole world will be watching this.
“A big number of the top teams in the world will be competing in this tournament and I can assure you, we’re going to give it our best shot. We’re going there to win it.”
But veteran Monterrey defender Sergio Ramos believes hulle maak hulle laat and that his former club Real Madrid are favourite to win the tournament.
NOT EASY: Pep Guardiola NEW BEGINNING: Pep Guardiola
Image: AFP
Ramos and his teammates faced Inter Milan last night, but he says of Real: “Real Madrid are always favourites in the big competitions.
“Real Madrid are the best in the world, for the level the club and players have, for the mentality that’s been sewn in there for so many years.”
Madrid have a new coach in Xabi Alonso as well as recent arrivals Trent Alexander-Arnold and Dean Huijsen, but have to be way of a Al-Hilal squad that includes Kalidou Koulibaly, Renan Lodi, Ruben Neves, Aleksandar Mitrovic, Joao Cancelo, Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Yassine Bounou and Malcom among others.