Welcome to the Thunder Football Newsletter. #20
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Table of Contents

• FIFA Club World Cup 🏆

• The Headlines ⚽

• Memes 😂

FIFA Club World Cup

The FIFA Club World Cup is an international football competition organized by FIFA. The tournament brings together the champion clubs from various continental confederations.

The 2023 FIFA Club World Cup is currently (12-22 December 2023) underway in Saudi Arabia.

The Teams participating in the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup:

• 🇧🇷 Fluminense (CONMEBOL) - Winners of the 2023 Copa Libertadores

• 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Manchester City (UEFA) - Winners of the 2022–23 UEFA Champions League

• 🇯🇵 Urawa Red Diamonds (AFC) - Winners of the 2022 AFC Champions League

• 🇪🇬 Al Ahly (CAF) - Winners of the 2022–23 CAF Champions League

• 🇲🇽 León (CONCACAF) - Winners of the 2023 CONCACAF Champions League

• 🇳🇿 Auckland City (OFC) - Winners of the 2023 OFC Champions League

• 🇸🇦 Al-Ittihad (AFC) - Hosts: Winners of the 2022–23 Saudi Pro League

Fluminense has already booked their place in the final by beating Al Ahly 2-0 on Monday. Tonight we’ll see Urawa Red Diamonds take on Manchester City in the other Semi-Final.

The Final of the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup will take place on Friday the 22nd of December at 21:00.

Remember Marcelo? The Real Madrid legend. He has won the Club World Cup 4 times with Real Madrid and now he’s back with Fluminense to lift the trophy a 5th time.

The last time a time outside of Europe won the Club World Cup was back in 2012 when Corinthians 🇧🇷 lifted the trophy by beating Chelsea in the final. Can Fluminense or Urawa Red Diamonds pull off an upset and prevent Manchester City from winning their first-ever FIFA Club World Cup? Only time will tell…

The Headlines

UEFA Champions League Round of 16 draw

The draw for the Champions League Round of 16 took place on Monday, the 18th of December, in Nyon, Switzerland. The 16 qualified teams were split into two pots. Pot 1 for all the group winners and Pot 2 for all the runners-up. Teams from Pot 1 could only be drawn against teams from Pot 2. No side can face another team from the same national association and clubs cannot face opponents they met during the group stage.

The outcome:

Leverkusen remain unbeaten

Bayer 04 Leverkusen is the last remaining unbeaten team in Europe’s Top 5 leagues. This team has really come alive under Xabi Alonso and currently sits on top of the Bundesliga after 15 games (W:12, D:3, L:0).

They also finished with a perfect record in the UEFA Europa League group stages.

EFL Cup Quarter-Finals

We’ve got Quarter-final action tonight and tomorrow night in the English Football League (EFL) Cup - also known as the Carabao Cup.

Liverpool has won the EFL Cup a record 9 times (last time in 2022) and seems to be the favourite to lift the trophy again in 2024.

19 December 2023

• Everton vs Fulham

• Port Vale vs Middlesbrough

• Chelsea vs Newcastle

20 December 2023

• Liverpool vs West Ham

History will be made

Rebecca Welch will become the first woman to referee a Premier League game.

Early Christmas gift 🎁

We’ve got an early Christmas gift in store for us on Saturday the 23rd of December. 1st vs 2nd in the English Premier League.

Arsenal vs Liverpool. Let’s goooo!

Memes 😂

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