FIFA exposes Maldini for his criticism of the Club World Cup, he doesn't get anything right

One of the most recognizable names in sports journalism in our country is Julio Maldonado. The veteran reporter, known as "Maldini", is a regular in the media thanks to his extensive knowledge of international soccer. He also usually works as another analyst in sports talk shows and programs.

That's why many want to know his verdict on the most important matches of the soccer season. Now that the FIFA Club World Cup is taking place, his predictions about the teams that will advance to the quarterfinals are highly anticipated. The matches from last Monday were a complete surprise.

Julio Maldonado stated, during his appearance on Cadena COPE, that Manchester City would defeat Al-Hilal in their round of 16 match. He offered a similar verdict for the match between Inter Milan and Fluminense: for "Maldini," the nerazurri squad was the chosen one to defeat the verdeamarelo team.

The development of those matches showed that the analyst was wrong. His predictions for the first round of 16 matches did not come true. First, Manchester City was defeated in overtime in its match against Al-Hilal, a match that featured as many as seven goals.

Little success so far

Even more striking was the mistake related to the Inter Milan match. Cristian Chivu's players barely managed to get close on the scoreboard against Fluminense. The performance of this South American squad shows that Brazilian soccer is more than capable of competing head-to-head with the European soccer elite.

Those wrong predictions by Julio Maldonado contrast with the predictions made by Tomás Guasch. Also during the same segment on Cadena COPE, the veteran commentator stated that Al-Hilal and Fluminense managed to defeat their rivals and reach the quarterfinals of the Club World Cup.

The mistake made by "Maldini" in those Club World Cup predictions is not the only controversy the Spanish journalist has been involved in regarding the competition organized by FIFA. His reluctance and initial criticism in multiple ways have given way to a total fascination that has cost him more than one callout on social media.

In any case, Julio Maldonado's predictions are subject to error... just like the predictions made by Tomás Guasch in the same Cadena COPE segment. In this case it was "Maldini", despite all his soccer knowledge, who failed to discern the winner of both ties.