Liverpool will be hoping to achieve a first in the illustrious history of the club tomorrow. They take on Flamengo with hopes of winning their first ever Club World Cup, which is quite remarkable when you consider their success on a continental level.
Liverpool lost the final of the competition to Sao Paulo back in 2005, while they also fell short in the Intercontinental Cup in both 1981 and 1984 to Flamengo and Independiente respectively.
It is a competition that has been largely derided by many back in England, with the seriousness of the event questioned even further due to the double booking of the team. Liverpool were forced to play in the Carabao Cup quarter final only one day before their game against Monterrey, with Jurgen Klopp option to field a reserve team for the fixture at Villa Park.
That had predictable results, with the home side running out 5-0 winners. It is a situation which displayed the sometimes farcical nature of the fixture scheduling in English football, with it known months in advance that Liverpool would be in Qatar on those dates.
It has been suggested that South American sides take this event far more seriously than their European counterparts, with Flamengo certainly going to Qatar to come back as world champions.
Speaking in his pre-match press conference today, Jurgen Klopp couldn't help but aim a subtle dig at the authorities in England for their lack of assistance in ensuring Liverpool were given ample opportunity to prepare for this event:
The situation is different for us and Flamengo. Flamengo were sent with a clear order to go and win it and bring it home.
We got told to stay at home and win the Carabao Cup. That’s a massive difference. We cannot change that.
But we are here and my team wants to win the competition and we know that its very difficult.
The Liverpool boss also offered a fitness update on Virgil van Dijk and Gini Wijnaldum, both of whom missed the semi-final. It sounds like it will be touch and go:
We will see on Virg and Gini. Both things.
Virg was part of training today, Gini had a session today. We will see how it will look in the end. We have no new injury concerns.
We will use each hour for recovery and we will see who we can line up tomorrow.
