FIFA World Club Championship – TP Mazembe vs. Internacional – Full Time Report (Part 2)
With the Africans taking charge of the game from the go, it was obvious that they were to be in the driver seat for the rest of the game. Their pace and passing was simply outstanding while the South American side were only left
chasing shadows. Lamine’s side knew how to perform on a tough turf and Abu Dhabi was definitely advantageous for them as they looked to be settling on the ‘hard soil’.
The Brazilians did try to take control of the game by playing long balls forward from the centre of the pitch, but the defensive walls of Mazembe were simply not easy to penetrate. During the 25th minute, the Brazilian
man Kaluyituka managed to get past two African midfielders, but a fabulous sliding challenge from the Mazembe defender Bolivar simply sealed the doors for the South American side. The tackle simply summed up the first twenty-five minutes of the game, as the
Africans were not only dominating up front but also at the back, as they did not let a single ball fly through towards their goalkeeper – at least for the first half hour.
Mazembe were getting close on scoring a goal and right before the end of the first half, they posed some real threat on the Brazilian defence. Mbenza Bedi’s fabulous through ball towards Given Singuluma was enough to make him go
one-one-one with the Internacional goalkeeper Renan. However, the Brazilian man came forward charging to deny the African team the goal that they deserved.
With the first half coming to an end, the Africans left the field very much happy of what they had accomplished. Not only did they manage to dominate 60% of the possession in the first forty-five minutes, in fact, they created
some healthy chances for their side that really threatened the Brazilian defensive walls. However, on the other hand, the Brazilians were taking disappointed faces to the locker room and they had nothing to back themselves up on their coach’s hair dryer treatment
that they really deserved after a poor first half.
In the second half, Internacional did not come out as they left in the first. Their coach Celso Roth did not want to take any chances with such an important game and just to add pace up front he took off Tinga and Giuliano victor
de Paula came on. The Brazilian coach decided to play him right behind the centre forward Rafael Sobis, who was having a very hard time against the African defence.
On the other hand, the African coach decided not to change anything as he looked to be happy with his side’s performance. Not only did he stick to the same team during the second half, he did not change a single piece of his team
until the end of the game. That was to show the fitness level of his players and of course, he did not really want to break the flow of the game, which was being played at immense pace.
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