Spanish football journalist Eduardo Alvarez says European teams could be subjected to a “huge upset” at the Club World Cup if they are not ready for “very enthusiastic opponents”.
The newly expanded tournament starts on Saturday with Manchester City and Chelsea taking first-team squads to the United States without a break after long domestic and European campaigns.
High temperatures are also expected at many of the games, especially those played in the middle of the day for broadcast during the evening in Europe.
“They are going to need to pause for hydration,” Alvarez told the BBC’s World Football podcast. “The combination of the heat and the fact that this is the off-season for the European teams will have an impact.
“I tend to think that the teams who are not 100% with their head and their heart on the tournament will be eliminated pretty quickly and those who stay will be extremely motivated to win this for the first time.
“In the following rounds we will see more entertaining match-ups and this will be interesting in the end.
“For the top European clubs, obviously they have been compensated with money – but in terms of the calendar this is not ideal. They are playing probably 60 or 70 matches and this is another six or seven that are not very welcome.
“But, all the other clubs – the chance to play Bayern Munich or Real Madrid you probably only get once in a while. To them, if there’s another two or three more matches – who cares?
“Some of them will bring us a huge upset. That’s part of the fun of the football. It’s the off-season for the European teams, some of them will be caught sleeping by a very enthusiastic opponent who say: ‘This is the game of our lives, we need to play like there’s no tomorrow.’
“These teams will either end up causing trouble to, or actually beating, a big household name.”
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