I’ve actually never been to New York before. This is my first time, would you believe?! It looks like such a good city, and it’s great to be here, especially with a semi-final to come.

It’s been great fun being with the lads over the past few weeks and travelling around America; I think that’s shown on the pitch. We know when to switch into game mode, but we’ve also been able to relax which has been helpful.

We’ve been playing PlayStation, UNO and sometimes ping pong. I have to say at ping pong I think I’m pretty good. At Uno, I’m not so good. We have a group that play – Andrey, Moi, Nico, Pedro, Filip and sometimes Robert – but they cheat a lot!

I love to bring energy and a bit of humour to the team. Even I’m not sure how I have this much energy, but I try to make some jokes and bring happiness because I think it’s really important, especially during these moments. We’ve spent a lot of time together over the past few weeks, and I feel we’re better for it.

The Club World Cup has been a good experience for me. We’ve played in a lot of different cities and we’ve had some time off to be tourists, which has been great. Hopefully, it can be even better and we win the tournament.

That close bond we’ve created off the pitch has helped a lot on it. It showed during the Palmeiras game. In the first half, we dominated and then in the second half, even though we conceded, we stuck together. That has been so important and a key theme throughout this tournament.

It doesn’t matter whether it’s been thunderstorms, two-hour delays, securing wins in extra time, or responding to equalisers, we’ve shown our maturity and character throughout.

We are continuously improving. Sometimes during the league season, we suffered a little bit in these moments, but now we are improving. That game against Benfica is another perfect example; we are together until the last minute.

Now it’s about continuing our hard work ahead of Tuesday’s semi-final with Fluminense. Training has been good, and we need to remember we are here for a good reason – our hard work and effort.

We deserve to be here, and we want to play in the final. Now it’s time to show it.

Tickets are available to see our Club World Cup semi-final against Fluminense in New Jersey and can be purchased from FIFA here. You can also watch the game live anywhere in world via DAZN by signing up for free here.