Tenacious Asian champions Gamba Osaka plan to throw everything they have at Manchester United when they meet in the Club World Cup on Thursday.
"They are the number one team in the world. We have nothing to lose," said Gamba and Japan midfielder Yasuhito Endo.
"I have seen videos of Manchester United games so many times. We will give all we have got," he said after their 1-0 victory over Adelaide United in the quarter-finals of the continental competition here on Sunday.
"There is no other opportunity like this. All of us can be stars if we win," Endo added.
Gamba want to use the tournament as a springboard to become regular faces on the regional and international scene. But comparisons between Gamba and star-studded Manchester United are staggering.
Aside from the skills, physicial strength and experience of individual players, the operational scale of the European giants overwhelms Gamba.
The Nikkan Sports newspaper printed an expected starting lineup of the two teams on Monday, and the estimated collective annual salary of the Red Devils stands tenfold above the income of Gamba players.
With the daunting showdown ahead, Gamba coach Akira Nishino, who has led the team since 2002, reminded that Red Devils that they are human, including Sir Alex Ferguson, who has reigned supreme at Old Trafford since 1986.
"You say Ferguson, but I say he is a human too," Nishino told Nikkan Sports.
"I want to think it shouldn't matter whether you are with Manchester United or Gamba. We want to face them without fear."
No comments:
Post a Comment