Corinthians chase first Women's Club World Cup title 🏆 squad, fixtures | OneFootball

Corinthians continues to make history in the national women’s football scene and will compete in the first-ever Women’s Club World Cup starting this Wednesday. FIFA has created the Women’s Champions Cup, which will bring together some of the top continental champions face-to-face.

Participating Teams

Six teams are competing in the first women’s Club World Cup in history: Auckland United (New Zealand), Wuhan Jiangda (China), AS FAR (Morocco), Corinthians (Brazil), Arsenal (England), and Gotham FC (USA).

Two of these teams have already been eliminated in the preliminary rounds — Auckland United and Wuhan Jiangda. Therefore, the semifinals will feature the following matchups:

Schedule and Possible Opponents

The Women’s Club World Cup will take place in a “lightning” format in London, England, from January 28 to February 1, the date scheduled for the grand final.

As the current Libertadores champion, Corinthians entered the Women’s Champions Cup directly in the semifinals and will debut in the competition seeking a spot in the final. The Brabas will face Gotham FC this Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m. (Brasília time), at GTech Community Stadium, in London.

In this match, Corinthians will meet a familiar face. The club will see forward Gabi Portilho again, who played for the Alvinegra team for four seasons.

If they qualify for the World Cup final, Timão will await the winner of the match between Arsenal (women’s Champions League champion) and AS FAR, African continental champion. On the other hand, if they lose, the Brabas will compete for third place.

Corinthians’ Registered Players

The list of Corinthians’ registered players suffered a loss on the eve of the World Cup. Defender Thaís Regina suffered a fibula fracture in her left ankle and had to be cut from the tournament. Meanwhile, defender Agustina Barroso will also not be with the squad due to a calf injury.

On the other hand, Corinthians is hopeful to have reinforcements for the debut. Midfielders Paola Garcia and Day Rodríguez and forward Robledo had been facing difficulties due to diplomatic visas. Last Monday, the club announced that the authorities granted the necessary documents to the athletes, who arrived in London on Tuesday afternoon.

It is still unknown, however, if the trio will be fit to play, since they did not participate in any training sessions with the Alvinegra squad on English soil.

See the players registered by Corinthians:

Ana Vitória, Corinthians’ reinforcement for the World Cup (Photo: Rodrigo Gazzanel / Corinthians)

Timão Highlights

Corinthians arrives at the Women’s Club World Cup as the champion of the two main intercontinental women’s football competitions: the Copa Libertadores and the Brazilian Championship. The team also finished the season as runner-up in the Supercopa do Brasil and the Campeonato Paulista.

One of the main highlights of the Brabas for the Women’s Champions Cup is midfielder Ana Vitória. The player was signed by Timão from Atlético de Madrid specifically to compete in the tournament. Other reinforcements for the season were Paola Garcia, from Deportivo Cali; Rhaizza, from Bahia; Belén Aquino, from Internacional; and Agustina, from Flamengo.

Meanwhile, more experienced names in the squad, such as Vic Albuquerque, Gabi Zanotti (voted Queen of America), Duda Sampaio, and Lelê are also players who can make a difference.

Adapting to London

Corinthians landed in London last Wednesday and has been training in England since then. The period was important for the squad’s adaptation to the milder climate, according to director Iris Sesso.

“We made a plan as soon as the Libertadores ended. I started planning to bring the team earlier, which is very important for adapting to the time zone and the climate as well. These first four days we came ahead were fundamental, mainly to understand a bit of this climate, this connection here in London,” she told Corinthians TV.

Dream Come True

Competing in a Women’s Club World Cup has always been a dream for much of the Corinthians squad, who fought for the consolidation of the sport in Brazil and worldwide. The creation of the tournament by FIFA, therefore, is also the result of a lot of hard work by the Brabas.

“Over the years, we dreamed of an intercontinental tournament that motivated us every day. Now it’s going to happen. We are very happy. Corinthians, once again, will be able to show its ability. We have already become a reference in South America, now we want to be a world reference,” said Tamires, one of the team’s leaders, to FIFA’s official website.

“When the news came out about the new tournament, the pressure to win the Libertadores increased, because it would have been useless to have won the previous year if we didn’t win the edition that would qualify us for the World Cup. We couldn’t let it slip because everyone always dreamed of this,” said captain Gabi Zanotti. “We knew that the spot in the first edition couldn’t go to another team, it had to be Corinthians,” she added.

Prize Money

Altogether, FIFA will pay 3.9 million dollars (almost R$ 21 million at the current exchange rate) among the six participating clubs.

The grand champion of the Women’s Club World Cup will take home 2.3 million dollars (R$ 12.1 million), while the runner-up will receive 1 million dollars (R$ 5.2 million).

The other clubs that reached the knockout stage of the tournament will receive 200 thousand dollars each (about R$ 1 million), and those that participated in the initial stages, 100 thousand dollars each (R$ 532 thousand).

Following this prize structure, Corinthians has already pocketed 200 thousand dollars (about R$ 1 million).

Tickets

Tickets for Corinthians’ match in the Women’s Club World Cup are being sold through the official website FIFA.com/tickets. The organization is already selling tickets for the semifinal and also for the final.

Ticket prices range from five to 60 pounds, which corresponds to something between R$ 36.10 and R$ 433.10.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.