2017 FIFA Club World Cup

[Diable Rouge]

RTE are showing both semi-finals and the final live this year, having never taken any previous interest in the competition. That said, Gremio v Pachuca and Real v Al-Jazira will hardly draw in the casual viewer, especially at 5 p.m. Irish time.

[cantagalo]

Looking forward to this. I confess to knowing nothing about Pachuca but Grêmio have been the best team in Brazil this year despite only finishing fourth in the league and they were excellent in the Libertadores final.

Unfortunately they’ll be without Barcelona target Arthur so the player to watch out for us probably Luan. Their main strength is their defence with two strong centre backs in Geromel and Kanneman and a very good goalkeeper in Marcelo Grohe. Pachuca would be well-advised not to concede free kicks within shooting distance as both Luan and right-back Edílson are very dangerous.

[cantagalo]

Grêmio will be keen to avoid the fate of Internacional in 2010 who lost to Mazembe and Atlético Mineiro in 2013 who were eliminated by Raja Casablanca. These defeats were regarded as a national humiliation and both Inter and Atlético are still regularly mocked about it to this day.

[ursus arctos]

Pachuca did not even finish in the top eight (thereby qualifying for the playoffs) in the recently concluded Mexican Apertura, and they struggled in the first round, only defeating WAC in the 90th minute, notwithstanding the fact that the Moroccans were down to ten men.

Urawa Reds currently up 2-1 in the 5th Place match

[Southport Zeb]

RTE are showing both semi-finals and the final live this year, having never taken any previous interest in the competition. That said, Gremio v Pachuca and Real v Wydad Casablanca will hardly draw in the casual viewer, especially at 5 p.m. Irish time.

Real are playing Al Jazira, not Wydad.

[Jon]

Is Arthur injured, canraglo, or is there another reason he's not playing?

[cantagalo]

Yes, he was injured just before half time in the second leg of the Libertadores final. Up to then, he’d been the best player on the pitch.

[Jon]

Thanks cantaglo. I know there was some fuss about him being photographed wearing a barca top the other day so I thought maybe that had something to do with his exclusion.

[ursus arctos]

This has been "robust" so far.

Gremio are the better team, but Honda is creating half chances for Pachuca.

[cantagalo]

Last ditch tackle needed by Cortez there. Grêmio finding it tough. Not as fluent without Arthur.

[Sam]

My TV channel list just had an advert thing covering the channel that's showing this, so I hadn't realised it was on already. At least I've not missed any goals so far.

[cantagalo]

Wasn’t great, was it? Grêmio haven’t got a great deal left on the bench, particularly as Cícero wasn’t registered in time for FIFA despite scoring in the first leg of the Libertadores final.

[cantagalo]

That’s more like it! Everton!

[cantagalo]

Oh my goodness. 2-0 to Al Jazira. I’d better start watching this!

[ad hoc]

It's only 1-0 isn't it?

[ad hoc]

And now 1-1

[cantagalo]

Haha - looked at the BBC Sport site and it briefly came up as 2-0! Now corrected and Real Madrid have indeed equalised...

[cantagalo]

That made me look really stupid, didn't it?

[cantagalo]

Ah I think I know what happened. Al Jazira had the ball in the net on 47 mins but it was disallowed for offside by the video replay. The BBC Sport guy must havejumped the gun.

[cantagalo]

Bale 2-1. No VAR on this one. Definitely a goal.

[Sam]

The commentators down here took an age to realise the goal had been disallowed, and from my Twitter timeline the same happened in lots of countries. A hazard of having the comms sitting in a studio back in their home countries, rather than in the stadium (so they couldn't have seen that the restart was with a free kick instead of a kick off from the centre spot).

Nice to see a European-team-involving CWC semi that wasn't woefully one-sided for a change, even if it took a woeful performance from Madrid to make it thus. If they're going to be that bad on Saturday the final ought to be worth watching.

[cantagalo]

Anyone watch it? I missed it but the reports sounded very drab, though possibly not as tedious as the 0-0 draw between Brentford and Barnsley.

There is a wide and growing gap between European and South American clubs. Brazilian clubs who reach the final will try to emulate Internacional and Corinthians amd win it by defending for their lives and trying to nick a goal on the break. It doesn’t make for a great spectacle.

[imp]

I can't believe it - I missed the entire World Club Cup! Again!