"Maybe the World Cup will kill us": Guardiola's prediction before a historic failure

In the early hours of Tuesday morning, one of the biggest upsets of the Club World Cup occurred. Manchester City, one of the teams that has spent the most money on reinforcements and who had had a perfect group stage in the tournament, were stunned by Al-Hilal in the round of 16. The 3-4 defeat after extra time against Simone Inzaghi's team is the latest major failure for the English side, who have had the worst season in their recent history .

The Club World Cup appeared on the calendar as a tournament conducive to redeeming themselves in style for the big European clubs who had endured a season to forget . Names like Manchester City, Real Madrid, Atlético de Madrid, and Inter Milan appeared on this list... and the results have spoken volumes. All the teams looking to salvage the season with a major tournament have failed, except for Real Madrid , who once again unleashed their competitive edge.

But the most striking defeat was undoubtedly City's. The English side were not only superior to Al-Hilal on paper , but based on their names, reinforcements, and squad, they should have had a more comfortable match against the Arab team. Especially when they took the lead in the ninth minute through Bernardo Silva and City dominated . Everything indicated that it was going to be an easy match for Pep Guardiola 's team, but nothing could be further from the truth.

Yassine Bono , in star form, was responsible for stopping all of the English team's attempts , keeping the team alive until halftime. And from then on, Al-Hilal only needed six minutes to turn the score around. Haaland soon put out the fire, but the game went into extra time. Once again, Koulibaly struck to put Inzaghi's team ahead, but Foden soon equalized, until Marcos Leonardo scored the winning goal .

It was a crazy match, one of those that managers don't like much, but spectators do, in which Al-Hilal ended up qualifying for the Club World Cup quarter-finals . And Pep Guardiola suffered the last major disappointment of a year to forget. City only won the Community Shield , and that was on penalties, at the beginning of the season. From then on, the Catalan's team's fall from grace has been evident: Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, EFL Cup, and Club World Cup.

And all this after spending a generous amount of money , having spent 350 million euros on strengthening the squad in the last two transfer windows. But the results haven't been what they hoped for, despite having started the tournament with flying colors. They won all three group stage matches, scoring 13 goals and conceding just two , until the moment of truth arrived. In the first World Cup knockout round, Manchester City went out , closing out the year in which Guardiola was forgotten.

The Catalan has faced yet another setback for his team, in a truly dramatic season. But the best news is City's rest, if there's anything positive to be found. In fact, he drew on Jürgen Klopp's recent words to draw a not-so-bad conclusion from the tie: "Maybe in November, December, or January, we'll be a disaster and exhausted. Maybe the World Cup will destroy us . I don't know, but it's the first time in our lives that this has happened."

It's true that, with almost no preseason and little rest, the best solution for many clubs is to stop playing as soon as possible . But in Guardiola's case, that wasn't an option after the disastrous season for one of the giants of European football. Now, the need is evident, and the excuses have run out: after paying 350 million to strengthen the squad, the margin for error has dwindled. "Nothing lasts forever," said Pep after the defeat. A prediction before the disaster.