The Brazilian sides have impressed throughout this summer’s Club World Cup. All four made it through the group stage successfully to compete in the knockout rounds and to date only one has been eliminated by a team from a different country. No nation has more than Brazil’s two representatives in the last eight.

While some have expressed surprise at the accomplishments of the Brazilian teams in the USA, Maresca is not one of them, due to the high regard he holds for football in that country.

‘We always respect Brazilian football. We don’t need this tournament to respect Brazilian football,’ explained our head coach, speaking to the media ahead of tomorrow’s meeting with Palmeiras.

‘Me, personally, I always respect Brazilian football because it’s one of, if not the, best countries in the world in terms of quality of football, so I didn’t need this competition to show that. They have shown in each game of this competition how good they are, and that will continue after this competition.

‘For me, it’s not a surprise because I really admire Brazilian football, because I love players with quality, and they are full of players with quality. That’s why I am not surprised about their football.’

Of course, the Blues need little reminder about the quality of Brazilian opposition at this Club World Cup. The only game we have failed to win in the competition so far came in a 3-1 group stage defeat at the hands of Serie A league leaders Flamengo.

However, Maresca believes he and his players have learned from that game and are well prepared for the quality they will face in the Palmeiras ranks – including Estevao Willian, who will complete his move to Chelsea after the tournament.

'For sure we try to learn, not just against Flamengo but after every game we play,’ he added. ‘Against Benfica, we did some things good and we could do some other things better.

‘The Flamengo game is the only time during this season we played in a new structure, because we are also thinking about different solutions and thinking about the future.

‘Flamengo are a very good team in the same way Palmeiras are a very good team, and Fluminense are doing well.

‘I really respect Palmeiras because you can see the way they are organised, the way they want to press, the way they are aggressive, the way they allow you to go one side and be very aggressive, ready for transition.

‘They have quality players. Estevao is one of them, [Richard] Rios is another of them. The best thing is you can see the identity that they have.’

Maresca and his Blues will be hoping to keep Palmeiras' threats under control when we meet in Philadelphia at 2am on Saturday UK time. You can watch that and every other game at the Club World Cup live via DAZN by signing up for free here.