Juventus boss Igor Tudor confessed that TEN of his players asked to come off during their FIFA Club World Cup clash with Real Madrid – just days after Enzo Maresca claimed that America is “not the right place to do the competition.”
The Italians were beaten 1-0 in Miami by the Spanish giants. Gonzalo García’s second-half goal secured the win for Los Blancos and confirmed the Spanish club’s place in the quarter-finals as the sun as the soaring heat again played their part.
It was north of 30 degrees in Florida at the Hard Rock Stadium, but the Juventus players still struggled with the conditions and nearly the entire lineup asked to be replaced at some point.
Tudor said: “The conditions were really difficult today. Ten players asked me to be replaced. They were really tired. There are a lot of factors that weighed into that. It is the end of a long season and there was a lot of stress on the players that takes their energy.
“The conditions that they played with were really difficult – the humidity too. All of these conditions make it much more difficult. And the heat – that was another thing that made it more difficult.”
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Chelsea boss Maresca made his feelings clear after his side saw off Benfica after extra-time on Sunday, but only after it became the sixth game of the tournament to be suspended because of seasonal summer thunderstorms.
The weather has been one of the Club World Cup major talking points and it has been further magnified given the country will host the World Cup next year, but Maresca didn’t hold back with his criticism for FIFA’s choice.
“I think it’s a joke, to be honest,” said he. “It’s not football. It’s completely something new; I struggle to understand. I can understand if it’s security reasons but if you suspend seven or eight games then it’s probably not the right place to do the competition.
“It’s not normal to suspend the game. In a World Cup, how many games are suspended? Zero probably. In Europe how many games get suspended? Zero. We’ve been here two weeks and they’ve already suspended six or seven games. There is some problems for me personally.”