City top Group G with dominant Juventus win | OneFootball

Manchester City qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup knockout stages as Group G winners after an impressive 5-2 win over Juventus in Orlando.

The Blues went in ahead at the break thanks to a Jeremy Doku strike and Pierre Kalulu own goal, either side of a Teun Koopmeiners leveller for the Italians.

And City never looked back after the break, with Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Savinho making sure of the victory before a late consolation from Dusan Vlahovic.

With Rodri making his first start since his injury return, it was a positive day all round for City, who will face the Group H runners up in the Round of 16.

What Happened

Both sides were assured of a spot in the knockout stages but knew there was still plenty riding on our Group G showdown in the blistering Orlando heat.

The equation was simple: City needed a win to leapfrog Juventus into top spot, with the Italians sitting above us ahead of kick-off having scored one more goal at the tournament.

But it was the Blues who started the stronger, with Bernardo Silva forcing a smart save from Juve stopper Michele Di Gregorio inside five minutes after intricate play down the left from Doku and Rayan Ait-Nouri.

City had fired an early shot across the bows but made our next chance on goal count.

After patient build-up play in the Juventus half, Ait-Nouri’s clever reverse pass unlocked the Italians’ defence to send Doku in behind, with the Belgian cutting inside on his right foot and curling home into the far corner.

But the Italians were back on level terms almost immediately, with Koopmeiners taking advantage of a loose pass out from Ederson to fire in an equaliser within two minutes.

It was frustrating for City, who had looked the better side in the early exchanges, but we regained our lead midway through the half, albeit in fortuitous circumstances.

Another smart move down the flank saw Tijjani Reijnders whip a low ball across the face of the Juventus goal and, when trying to clear the danger, Kalulu instead put the ball into his own net at the far post.

City were dominating possession in the Orlando heat but also stretching Juventus with direct balls into the channels where Doku, Savinho and Omar Marmoush lurked.

Just as the rain began to come down in a deluge on the Camping World Stadium, Ait-Nouri went close with a half-volleyed effort across goal, before Marmoush had Di Gregorio at full stretch with a shot from distance just before the break.

Juventus’ goal aside, it had been a dominant first half display from Guardiola’s men, and that continued after the restart.

Erling Haaland, introduced at the break for Marmoush, was inches from connecting with a Savinho cross inside 60 seconds, but gobbled up his second opportunity to put some daylight between the sides.

Another beautifully constructed move from City saw Reijnders play Matheus Nunes in behind, with the Portuguese squaring for the Norwegian to tap into an empty net for his 300th career goal.

Guardiola had said we’d have to ‘suffer’ in the Orlando heat in his pre-match press conference, but the Blues showed no signs of fatigue in our most convincing display so far at the Club World Cup.

Ederson was called into action just after the hour mark to make a brave one-on-one stop to halt Vlahovic in his tracks, but it was four soon after.

Haaland, who’d done brilliantly to bring down an aerial ball on the right, cut inside and played the ball towards Foden.

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And while the England international wasn’t able to connect with the pass, he was on hand to tap into an empty net when Savinho played the ball back across to him from the far post.

The Brazilian got in on the act soon after to make it five with a stunning effort, firing in from the edge of the area off the crossbar after Juventus had only half-cleared a corner.

Vlahovic added a second for the Italians as stoppage time approached after getting in behind the City defence, but it was a mere consolation on an evening where the Blues laid down a marker in the Club World Cup.

It could even have been six in stoppage time, only for Rayan Cherki to be denied by an excellent Di Gregorio save down to his right.

Player of the Match: Jeremy Doku

A typically lively display from the Belgian, who opened the scoring for City in Orlando.

Constantly stretching the Juventus backline and cleverly bringing his team-mates into play, his link-up down the left with Ait-Nouri got fans off their seats and provided an exciting indication of what's to come.

How we lined up

Pep Guardiola made seven changes from the side who beat Al Ain in our most recent Group G outing, with Ederson returning between the sticks.

Matheus Nunes, Manuel Akanji, Ruben Dias and Rayan Ait-Nouri made up the back four, with Rodri sitting in front at the base of midfield.

Tijjani Reijnders and Bernardo Silva completed the midfield three, with Savinho and Jeremy Doku starting on the flanks.

Omar Marmoush led the line as centre-forward.

CITY XI: Ederson, Nunes, Akanji, Dias, Ait-Nouri (O’Reilly 75’), Rodri (Gundogan 66’), Reijnders, Bernardo (Cherki 75’), Savinho, Doku (Foden 66’), Marmoush (Haaland 46’)

Subs: Bettinelli, Ortega Moreno, Stones, Ake, Nico, Reis, Gvardiol, Khusanov, Bobb

JUVENTUS XI: Di Gregorio, Costa (Cambiaso 57’), Kalulu, Savona (Gatti 61’), Kelly, Kostic, Locatelli (Thuram 57’), McKennie (Adzic 82’), Gonzalez, Koopmeiners (Yildiz 57’), Vlahovic

Subs: Daffara, Garofani, Pinsoglio, Bremer, Conceicao, Douglas Luiz, Kolo Muani, Milik, Rouhi, Rugani

What it means

The victory means City finish top of Group G with a 100% record.

Juventus qualify for the knockout stages as runners up, with Al Ain finishing third in the group and Wydad AC fourth.

Up next

As winners of Group G, we will face the runners up from Group H.

Real Madrid, RB Salzburg and Al Hilal are battling it out for the two qualification spots later this evening.

The match will take place on Tuesday 1 July at 02:00 (UK) at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.