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Wadi / Agencies
European champions Real Madrid are looking for a new title to add to their trophy cabinet, when they face Mexican team Pachuca in the final of the Intercontinental Club Cup, Wednesday, at the Lusail Mundial Stadium in Doha, the Qatari capital.The match is organised at the stadium with a capacity of about 89,000 fans, on the second anniversary of the 2022 World Cup final, when Lionel Messi’s Argentina won the title against France on penalties on penalties.
The Royal Club is playing its eleventh final in a FIFA club competition, having previously won the FIFA Club World Cup five times. Real Madrid has the chance to end the year with a fifth title, having won the Spanish League, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup and European Super Cup in 2024.
After an uneven start to the season, the Madrid giants have breathed a sigh of relief in recent weeks, going unbeaten in their last three matches, reviving their hopes of defending their domestic league and Champions League titles. The Spanish capital club is third in the league with a game in hand, but just one point behind leaders Barcelona and Atletico Madrid (Atletico also has a game in hand), while they have moved up to 20th place in the continental competition and kept their chances of qualifying for the last eight alive. Italian coach Carlo Ancelotti’s team is armed with the return of French star Kylian Mbappe to the squad, and to the stadium where he scored three goals in the ‘Duke’ team’s loss of the Qatar World Cup final to Argentina on penalties.The Royal Club said in a statement before heading to Doha: ‘Mbappe did some training with the rest of the team and some on his own.’ Mbappe missed his team’s last domestic league match against Rayo Vallecano “3-3” last Saturday, due to a thigh injury that forced him to leave in the 36th minute against Atalanta, last Tuesday, in the Champions League “3-2”. It will be an opportunity for Mbappe and his companions to win a title that may have a great moral impact, especially on the second half of the season, as Real are looking to find a balance lost since the beginning of the season after the retirement of German Toni Kroos and the joining of Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain. While Real secured their place in the final by winning the Champions League at the expense of Germany’s Borussia Dortmund 2-0 in the final last season, Pachuca had a tougher path by first beating US Columbus Crew 3-0 in the CONCACAF Champions League final, before defeating Brazilian Botafogo, South American champions, 3-0 in the Derby of the Americas in Doha, then Egypt’s Al Ahly three days later in the semi-finals on penalties 6-5. Real and Pachuca are playing their first ever match, but interestingly, they are in the same Group E alongside Salzburg of Austria and Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia in the expanded version of the Club World Cup, which will be held this summer for the first time in the United States of America. While many players, especially in defence, are still missing from the Merengue squad, such as Austrian David Alaba, Dani Carvajal, Brazilian Eder Militão and Frenchman François Mendy, Ancelotti will rely on his arsenal, especially after the return of Brazilian Vinicius Junior, who came on as a second-half substitute in the last match against Rayo Vallecano, as well as relying on Real’s vast experience in final confrontations.
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