Chelsea defender Marc Cucurella has described Brazilian giants Fluminense as a very high level team.
Chelsea would be meeting a Brazilian team for the third time in this year’s FIFA Club World Cup in the United State.
In the group stage, the Blues lost 3-1 to Flamengo before edging out Palmeiras 2-1 in the quarter-finals.
On their part, Fluminense are yet to taste defeat in the tournament, winning three and drawing two of their five matches played so far.
“They have a very high level. They have shown in this tournament why they are going right until the final [stages],” Cucurella said ahead of Tuesday’s semi-final encounter between Chelsea and Fluminense.
“We’ve played against two Brazilian teams so far and now we will face a third. They fight until the end. We’re happy to be in the next round and to have this experience of playing against the South American teams, which isn’t very common. Overall, we’re enjoying this tournament.”
Cucurella will come up against his former Chelsea teammate Thiago Silva, who joined Fluminense after departing the Blues.
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Silva, who left Chelsea last summer, is still producing impressive performances at the age of 40 for the Brazilian club and has been a rock at the heart of their defence.
The Blues will meet Silva’s current club on Tuesday in New York and Cucurella is looking forward to doing battle with his former team-mate.
“He’s a legend of football, a top player. He’s only played for big clubs and texted me before the [quarter-final] game saying, ‘Let’s go, hopefully we can see you in a couple of days’. I texted him saying, ‘Let’s go!’
“We have the opportunity to play against him again and hopefully we can do good things and win this game and play in the final which is what we want to do.”
