By Tim Vickery BBC Sport Online

The score stands at 11 wins to Europe and 11 to South America since the champions of the two continents have been meeting in the annual clash in Tokyo.

Such parity perhaps hides the fact that the financial gulf between European and South American football has never been bigger.

After all, Europe has emerged victorious in six of the last seven years.

Both contenders for this year's World Club Cup - to be held on Tuesday - are celebrating their centenary and both can look back on a glorious history.

Real Madrid's triumphs are well documented, Olimpia's less so.

Paraguay's oldest and consistently strongest club, Olimpia are one of the stalwarts of the Copa Libertadores, South America's Champions League.

Caceres will be out of position

In the 43 years of the competition only 5 times has the trophy gone outside the traditional triumvirate of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay.

On three of those occasions Olimpia were champions, a remarkable achievement which places them among the continent's giants.

But there is no way they can match Real Madrid's financial resources.

Since winning the Champions League Real have added the South American talent of Ronaldo and Cambiasso to their already star-packed squad.

The Olimpia team, though, look weaker than when they won the Libertadores.

Players have been transferred, others are injured.

Coach Nery Pumpido has to resort to pushing his pieces around the table with the air of a man whose jigsaw is incomplete.

His team became South American champions with a mixture of solid footballing sense, good players in key positions and the traditional Paraguayan virtues of grit and teamwork.

In their seven away games they conceded just six goals. The back four defended well as a unit, operating close together, covering each other and forming a barrier which was rarely pierced.

Outstanding

They looked set to supply the corner stone of Olimpia's quest to hold, wear down and defeat Real Madrid. But now Pumpido has been forced to tinker with the machine.

Brazilian left back Henrique Da Silva is injured - an important loss because his duties include covering centre back Nelson Zelaya, good in the air but somewhat ponderous on the ground.

Even more significantly - assuming Olimpia are not trying to confuse Real with disinformation - Pumpido has been forced to push his other centre back, Julio Cesar Caceres, into midfield.

Caceres has had an outstanding year. Little more that a year ago he was an unknown midfielder.

As soon as he was converted into a centre back he embarked on a meteoric rise that took him to the World Cup and won the admiration of many European clubs.

With his timing in the tackle and astute reading of the game he soon proved ideally suited to playing at the back, with all the action in front of him.

But Olimpia now find themselves light in midfield.

Raul will test Olimpia's defence

Since winning the Libertadores they have lost both Victor Quintana and Juan Carlos Franco.

Short of options, Pumpido has asked Caceres to return to his previous midfield role. Reluctantly, Caceres has agreed.

It is a risky move. Olimpia are taking their most important player away from the position in which he is most effective, and further disturbing the balance of their back four.

Into the side comes 21 year old Pedro Benitez, a promising centre back, but one who faces the most challenging game of his short career.

Like Zelaya he is a stopper. As a pair they could well be too similar, too easily beaten for pace by the likes of Raul and Ronaldo.

So with their patched up defence Olimpia take the field against a Real attack whose goal drought must surely come to an end sooner rather than later.

And probably too soon for Olimpia's hopes of Tokyo glory.