The FIFA Club World Cup came to the end of its two-year run in Abu Dhabi when Italians Inter Milan beat TP Mazembe of the Democratic Republic of Congo 3-0 in the final.
On the big night at the Sheik Zayed Stadium, it was fairly routine win for Inter, as, after going 2-0 up within 19 minutes, they put in an astute performance to soak up the pressure from the Africans for the rest of the game, without looking like they would ever lose their advantage.
Inter’s Cameroonian star player Samuel Eto’o set up Goran Pandev’s opener in the 13th minute, before adding the second himself, with Joseph Biabiany’s third in the 85th minute wrapping up the victory.
In an earlier third-place playoff, Brazilian team Internacional took bronze by beating South Korea’s Seongnam Ilhwa 4-2.
Throughout the final, a huge contingent of noisy Inter fans cheered on their team to victory, setting off red flares in the final minutes to celebrate their win. While, although the handful of TP Mazembe fans were outnumbered, they kept up a decent noise level with an accompanying band that enthusiastically belted out African rhythms, even when the team was 3-0 down.
Overall, it was a fitting finish to a spectacular festival of football, which, as the competition is returning to Japan in 2011, is the last time we’ll see it take place in Abu Dhabi for a while. However, the Abu Dhabi government has said it will bid for the FIFA CWC to return to the city in 2013.
