Fabio\u2019s 43-year-old body was heading west. Kahraba, six yards out, headed the ball forcibly to the goalkeeper\u2019s east. The Al Ahly supporters behind the goal leapt off their seats, arms in air, to rejoice deadlock being broken in minute 37 of the FIFA Club World Cup Saudi Arabia 2023\u2122 semi-final.<\/p>\n
Fabio, defying age, refuting the rules of reflex, reacted instantaneously and somehow repelled it \u2013 in an awkward position north-east of his right shoulder \u2013 with one palm.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a difficult save,\u201d said Fabio. \u201cThe ball took a ricochet, fell to the opponent. He shot with his head and I had to react as soon as possible. Thank God I was able to make that save at a decisive moment in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The save \u2013 one of seven the Fluminense No1 King Abdullah Sports City Stadium \u2013 swung the momentum. Thereafter, ‘Dinizismo’ \u2013 the Tricolor\u2019s unique, opponent-befuddling brand of football \u2013 asserted itself and goals from Jhon Arias and John Kennedy secured a deserved 2-0 win.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust another day in the life of Fabio!\u201d said an awestruck Arias. \u201cHe\u2019s a goalkeeper always helps us a lot. He\u2019s tremendous. He\u2019s in extremely good form.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFabio made one or two great saves,\u201d said John Kennedy. \u201cOr, actually, Fabio did what he always does.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was an incredible save,\u201d said Samuel Xavier. \u201cFabio\u2019s really experienced. It seems as if he always knows where the striker is going to put the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe always comes up with big saves. It instils us with a lot of confidence. He had a great game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fabio wasn\u2019t the only one Samuel Xavier singled out for praise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought Martinelli and Andre were outstanding,\u201d the right-back said of the 22-year-old central midfielders. \u201cI thought we played well defensively and once we got going, we played beautiful football.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is Fluminense. Diniz always tells us we can\u2019t stray from doing what we do, what we train. This is us, our style. We\u2019re really happy with the performance and with reach the Club World Cup final. It\u2019s a great sensation.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil we got going it was difficult,\u201d commented Fabio. \u201cWe were up against a quality side. After a while our football started to flow, we had a lot of possession, quick transitions. This favoured our game and our talented players.\u201d<\/p>\n
Talents such as Ganso, Arias and John Kennedy thrilled and took the plaudits on Monday evening, but Fabio\u2019s denial of Kahraba may have been the most crucial contribution of the match for Fluminense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Fabio\u2019s 43-year-old body was heading west. Kahraba, six yards out, headed the ball forcibly to the goalkeeper\u2019s east. The Al Ahly supporters behind the goal leapt off their seats, arms in air, to rejoice deadlock being broken in minute 37 of the FIFA Club World Cup Saudi Arabia 2023\u2122 semi-final. Fabio, defying age, refuting the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":920498,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20966],"tags":[9648,27192],"class_list":["post-920497","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fifa-news","tag-fifa","tag-fifa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920497","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=920497"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/920497\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/920498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=920497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=920497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/91varzeshi.ir\/portal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=920497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}