The facts on BVB's first match at the FIFA Club World Cup | OneFootball

BVB versus BraziliansBorussia Dortmund are set to face a club from Brazil in a competitive match for the second time. In 1997, BVB won the Intercontinental Cup thanks to a 2-0 win over Cruzeiro in Tokyo. They will now face Rio de Janeiro outfit Fluminense, who reached the final of the FIFA Club World Cup in 2023/24 (then still involving seven teams) but lost 4-0 to Manchester City.

Both were/are on a run Borussia Dortmund picked up six wins from their last six competitive games of the 2024/25 season. Fluminense have won four and drawn one of their last six matches in the Campeonato Brasileiro A and the Copa Sudamericana (the secondary club competition in South America, on par with the Europa League). Those matches took place between 11 May and 2 June. Borussia's last outing was back on 17 May.

No heavy losses While Borussia Dortmund reportedly once suffered 12-0 and 11-1 defeats – but also won a game 11-1 – the biggest defeats in the history of Fluminense, who were founded in 1902, were by 6-0 scorelines in the Brazilian top flight in 1996 and 2002. Their biggest victory was by a 10-1 scoreline against Petrolero in the Copa Sudamericana in May 2022.

Both teams used to plenty of fansBorussia Dortmund once again boasted the highest average attendance in the Bundesliga last season, with 81,365 spectators. In 2008, Fluminense played the return leg of the Copa Libertadores final (3-1 penalty loss to LDU Quito) in front of 90,000 fans. The Estadio Jornalista Mario Filho, better known by the name Maracanã, currently has space for 82,238 spectators. There have been 80,000 fans on two occasions.

Plenty of experience at FluminenseAt 27.3 years, the average age of Dortmund's starting XI in their 3-0 victory over Holstein Kiel on the final day of the Bundesliga season was not exactly young. But the Fluminense team that recently took to the field in the Campeonato Brasileiro A and beat Internacional by a 2-0 scoreline, despite being vastly outnumbered in terms of shots at goal (15-8), was brimming with experience. The starting XI was 31.6 years old on average. Half of the team were over 30, including goalkeeper Fábio (44), centre-back Thiago Silva (40), full-backs Samuel Xavier (35) and René (32), midfield maestro Thiago Santos (35) and centre-forward Everaldo (33).

The oldest and the second-youngestAt 44 years and 257 days, Fluminense goalkeeper Fábio will be by some distance the oldest player at the tournament when the FIFA Club World Cup gets under way. He is followed by his team-mate and centre-back Thiago Silva (40 years old) and Mamelodi Sundowns shot-stopper Denis Onyango, 40, whom Borussia will face in their second group game. In 1997, Fábio won the U17 World Cup for Brazil alongside Ronaldinho. Takeshi Wada, the Urawa Red Diamonds midfielder, is the youngest player at the FIFA Club World Cup. He only turned 16 years of age last week. The second-youngest player is Borussia Dortmund winger Mathis Albert (16 years and 24 days at the start of the tournament).

The biggest and the smallestGustavo Ramalho of Fluminense is the tallest player at the tournament, at 2.01 metres. Meanwhile, Kaio César of Al Hilal and Fluminense's Yeferson Soteldo are the smallest players at the tournament, at 1.60 metres each. They are followed by the Mamelodi Sundowns duo of Siyabonga Mabena and Thato Sibiya, who are 1.62 metres tall.