City thrash Juventus to maintain 100 per cent record at Club World Cup

New Straits Times

2 days ago

ORLANDO, United States: Manchester City turned on the style to seal top spot in Group G at the Club World Cup with an emphatic 5-2 win over Juventus on Thursday.
The third straight victory for Pep Guardiola's side increases the chances of City avoiding a meeting with Real Madrid in the last 16 – a fate that may now await Juventus.
City and Juve will not know their opponent until the final pair of games in Group H conclude later on Friday.
A positive day for City saw 2024 Ballon d'Or winner Rodri make his first start since rupturing his ACL in September and Guardiola's side, featuring several new faces, look significantly improved on the team which struggled to finish 13 points behind Premier League champions Liverpool last season.
City were on top from the outset with a Bernardo Silva header forcing Juve keeper Michele Di Gregorio to save with his feet in the fifth minute.
Four minutes later, Guardiola's new-look side had the lead when after a characteristic, patient build-up, Rayan Ait-Nouri split the Juve defence with a superb pass which Jeremy Doku collected and dispatched into the far corner.
Juve were gifted an equaliser when City's Brazilian keeper Ederson's pass out was intercepted by Teun Koopmeiners who marched into the box and confidently fired home.
Juve returned the gift though in the 26th minute when French defender Pierre Kalulu, under no pressure, turned a low cross from Matheus Nunes into his own net.
A short but intense downpour just before half-time cooled the stadium down and Guardiola introduced his prolific Norwegian striker Erling Haaland at the break and it took just seven minutes for him to find the scoresheet.
Tijjani Reijnders fed Matheus Nunes whose low cross found an unmarked Haaland in the middle and while it wasn't the cleanest of finishes from close range, the striker celebrated his 300th career goal.
Rodri left the field in the 66th minute to applause as Ilkay Gundogan took over his role in the centre of midfield but City continued to over-run the Turin side.
Haaland latched on to a long ball from Ederson and looked for fellow sub Phil Foden in the middle but put his cross beyond the England man only for Savinho to recover it and set-up Foden for a simple conversion.
Savinho then made made it 5-1 when after a Haaland shot was saved by De Gregorio's feet, the Brazilian met the loose ball with a thundering drive which flew in off the underside of the bar.
Juventus had created little but restored a little pride when Kenan Yildiz produced a lovely touch and clever pass to set Dusan Vlahovic free and the Serbian beat Ederson from the edge of the box.
"It has been a long time since we had a performance like this on and off the ball. The players were committed and we are happy to beat a top side," Guardiola said afterwards.
"This is just one game, but I think the players felt again what it was like to be a good team. The belief always comes from your performances, not your past," added Guardiola, who was delighted to have Rodri back at the heart of his team.
"We have missed him a lot. He knows exactly what he has to do with the ball, and his personality. I didn't expect him to play as many minutes. He will be ready for the next one. Everybody gave an incredible performance," he said.
For Juventus it was a mauling that they will need to quickly recover from before their last 16 game.
"They have much stronger players than us and I'm not going to look for excuses," said Croatian coach Igor Tudor.
"We suffered. We weren't able to steal the ball, we were deep and we didn't play well with the ball. We paid for everything, we had to be perfect but they always arrived first to the ball," he added.