Barcelona vs. River Plate 2015 live stream: Time, TV schedule and how to watch Club World Cup online

Barcelona take on River Plate in the final of the Club World Cup in Japan on Sunday, with both sides looking to gift their supporters an early Christmas present. This rather grandiosely titled tournament isn’t nearly as prestigious as may be inferred: It pits each of the world’s continental champions against each other, though the gulf in quality between the continental confederations usually guarantees rather predictable matches.

Not since the inaugual edition of this tournament has the European representative failed to reach the final, and in only three of the 10 finals since has a non-UEFA team lifted the trophy.

Sure enough, Barcelona, winners of the last UEFA Champions League, head into the match as strong favorites to beat the reigning Copa Libertadores champions, River Plate. With the quality of European domestic football generally so much higher to that of Latin America, it would take an upset of big proportions for the Argentine side to come away with the trophy for the first time in their history.

River will surely head into this match with the hope of keeping things at the back for as long as possible. The longer they can keep the game goalless, the greater their confidence of snatching an unlikely winner on the counter-attack will be. However, if they concede early and have to go chasing the game, they could be in for a very long evening indeed.

There is history between these clubs, but not much, and it’s certainly not recent. These sides have met three times in their history, with the first coming in the 1961 Trofeo Ramón Carranza, when Barcelona won 2-0. However, the second, in the inaugural edition of the Copa Iberoamericana three years later, was rather more notable. Tensions ran high as Barça had two players sent off, with the Catalan club eventually crumbling to a 5-1 defeat. Their third and final meeting came in the 1960 Costa del Sol tournament, with Spain winning on penalties after a goalless draw.

Out: None. In doubt: None.

Barcelona are waiting on the fitness of star strikers Messi and Neymar, who both failed to feature in the win over Guangzhou Evergrande. River Plate, however, should have a full-strength team available.

Match date/time: Sun., Dec. 20, 5:30 a.m. ET, 7:30 p.m. local

Venue: Nissan Stadium, Yokohama, Japan

TV: Fox Sports 1 (US - English); Fox Deportes (US - Spanish); Sportsnet World (Canada)

Online: Fox Sports Go (US); Sportsnet World Now (Canada)