'Los Blancos' discovered against Al-Jazira that teams are not just going to roll over and let them win the tournament and a quick look at the hstory books shows that Saturday's final will be no exception.
Since the Club World Cup was launched unter its current guise, the final has been between a European side against a Brazilian side on four occasions, with the South American side taking home the bragging rights more often than not.
Only Barcelona have emerged victorious as a European side, defeating Santos back in 2011. On the other three occasions Liverpool lost to Sao Paulo (2005), Internacional defeated Barcelona (2006) and Corinthians saw off Chelsea (2012).
This year will see another European/Brazilian clash, with Real needing to change the course of history if they want to get their hands on another title.