Guangzhou Evergrande to Face Barcelona in FIFA Club World Cup

Remarkably, Messi has only once previously played against an Argentine club, when Barcelona beat Estudiantes 2-1 in the 2009 Club World Cup final.

“If he was playing for us, losing him would be a big challenge”. River have also had to deal with the familiar problem of losing key players.

But as one door closed, another opened for a British coach overseas as Gary Neville was surprisingly named Valencia boss for the rest of this season in December.

More comfortable when his team are seen as the underdogs, he often takes the laws of the game to their limits by using tactical fouling to stop the opposition stringing together passes in midfield. “We have to pay attention to everybody”.

Messi acknowledged the Catalan side now have a more direct approach under Luis Enrique, but insists their possession-based philosophy remains integral. We genuinely weren’t sure if we’d get close to that again.

Neymar was missing from training on Monday, as European champion Barcelona started its preparations for the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan.

Guangzhou, who are unbeaten in 28 games, are managed by ex-Chelsea boss Luiz Felipe Scolari and have former Premier League pair Robinho and Paulinho in their squad. We wanted to face the world’s best team. But for quite some time now they have not been finding the answers and the team doesn’t at present look like one able to generate great expectations at any given time. It is a hard draw and we will have to do our best to try to reach the next round, for Arsenal also has a good defense.

The inaugural edition of the competition was held in 2000, growing out of the Intercontinental Cup, previously played on an annual basis between the champions of Europe and South America.

“He came to Guangzhou and after a month became the most important player in the Chinese league and the Asian Champions League”, Scolari said on Sunday.

“The supporters know it was my dream to play for Barca, and I want to give everything I can for this shirt”.

“The most surprising thing is that they complement each other so well and each one of them brings us something different”.

“If you lose your focus you can lose the match”.

Barcelona were mobbed by Japanese fans yesterday after holding their first training session at the Club World Cup. I don’t know if it would be Barcelona or Brazil. The players are disappointed like I am as we wanted to continue with our advantage over rivals.