Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City demonstrated their FIFA Club World Cup credentials with a 5-2 victory over Juventus on Thursday, while Vinicius Junior starred as Real Madrid beat Salzburg 3-0 to secure a spot in the last 16.
Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia beat Pachuca of Mexico 2-0 to pip Salzburg to the last berth in the knockout phase, as Al-Ain battled to a 2-1 win over Wydad Casablanca in the day’s other game.
City became the only side at the tournament to win all three of their group matches as they put Juventus to the sword in front of 54,320 at the Camping World Stadium in Orland, Florida.
Photo: AFP
City now face Al-Hilal, the only Asian representative in the next round after goals from Salem Al-Dawsari and Brazilian Marcos Leonardo against Pachuca.
“We played well and I’m happy with the victory,” said City winger Jeremy Doku, who opened the scoring.
Doku pounced for the early opener after new arrival Rayan Ait-Nouri set him up with a clever ball.
Photo: AP
However, City stopper Ederson passed the ball straight to Teun Koopmeiners who leveled for Juventus, in one of the few moments in which Guardiola’s team let their focus slip.
Pierre Kalulu bundled into his own net from Matheus Nunes’ cross to restore City’s lead.
The English Premier League side, hoping to make up for a poor season by their standards in which they finished without a major trophy, stepped up a level after the break with Erling Haaland’s introduction.
The Norwegian striker tapped home the third and then helped create the fourth for Phil Foden, before Savinho smashed home from distance for the fifth.
Dusan Vlahovic netted late on for Juve, but it did not take the shine off an impressive triumph for City, who were able to give holding midfielder Rodri a first start after his long injury layoff.
“Manchester City have a lot better [quality of] players than us, that’s the truth, that needs to be acknowledged,” said Juventus coach Igor Tudor, as his side finished second in Group G.
“The stars didn’t align for us to play better tonight,” he added.
Al-Ain got the better of Wydad in Washington in a meeting of two teams who were already eliminated, but were hoping to sign off with a victory.
South African striker Cassius Mailula blasted the Moroccans into an early lead, but Togo international Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba levelled from the spot just before the break for Al-Ain.
That was their first goal of the tournament after 5-0 and 6-0 thrashings by Juve and City respectively, and Paraguayan international Alejandro Romero curled home from the edge of the box to earn the team from the United Arab Emirates victory.
Vinicius scored one goal and made another with a touch of class as Madrid saw off Salzburg in Philadelphia to clinch top spot in Group H.
Real play Juventus in the last 16 in Miami on Tuesday.
Brazilian star Vinicius opened the scoring after a superb defense-splitting pass by Jude Bellingham on 40 minutes, to the delight of the vast majority of the 64,811 crowd on a rainy night at Lincoln Financial Field. Vinicius then set up Federico Valverde with a clever backheel to make it 2-0 in first-half stoppage time.
Young striker Gonzalo Garcia ran through to wrap up the win late on with his second goal of the tournament, as Xabi Alonso’s team ended the first round of FIFA’s new tournament unbeaten.
“I am pleased with the boys, and now the interesting phase begins,” Alonso told broadcaster DAZN.
Real were once again without top scorer Kylian Mbappe, who has yet to play at the tournament as he recovers from illness.
“We thought Kylian would make it and it wasn’t to be. Now we have four days and I want to be optimistic but cautious at the same time,” Alonso said.
TO THE TOP: After securing the international title on Saturday, Team Taiwan were to face Las Vegas to potentially win their 18th Little League World Series championship A team from Taipei’s Dong Yuan Elementary School won the Little League Baseball World Series’ international title on Saturday by defeating Aruba 1-0 in the annual baseball tournament held in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania. The Taiwan team, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, were after press time last night to face a team from Las Vegas, Nevada, which beat a team from Fairfield, Connecticut, in the US championship 8-2. Taiwan are seeking to win their first Little League Baseball World Series title since 1996. “Really haven’t taken a moment to data dump right now on Taiwan,” Nevada manager T.J. Fescher said. “They’re a
Marc Marquez continued his winning streak as he cruised to victory in the Hungarian GP sprint by two seconds on Saturday night to pad his championship lead. It was a seventh straight Sprint victory for the Spaniard, who has also won the last six longer Sunday grand prix races on his factory Ducati. Fabio Di Giannantonio, an Italian with the VR46 Ducati satellite team was a distant second at Balaton Park, followed by his team-mate and compatriot Franco Morbidelli third. Marquez, a six-time world champion, started the race from pole position. “I felt someone really close on the first corner, from there I
Former European champions Celtic exited the UEFA Champions League in the qualifiers after a 3-2 penalty shoot-out defeat at Kazakhstan’s Kairat Almaty on Tuesday, following two goalless legs in the playoff tie. Kairat are to compete in the competition proper for the first time, while Norway’s Bodo/Glimt and Cyprus’s Pafos also secured debut appearances after coming through the playoffs. Celtic’s night ended in disappointment as they missed three penalties in the shoot-out, Daizen Maeda failing with the decisive spot-kick. The slugfest of a match went into extra-time with neither side finding the net and few overall chances, echoing the first
Russian Diana Shnaider continued her impressive winning streak in tour-level finals at the Monterrey Open on Saturday, beating compatriot Ekaterina Alexandrova 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 in the WTA 500 event’s final. Shnaider had little trouble in the opening set but struggled in a topsy-turvy second, as Alexandrova clinched the set’s fifth and decisive break at 5-4 to force a decider. Third-seed Shnaider carved out an advantage early on in the third set when she broke Alexandrova in the first game and held serve to go 2-0 up, an advantage she would not relinquish. World No. 12 Shnaider is now unbeaten in her last five
RSS