Bernardo Silva says City's improvement is ‘a good sign for next season'
The Premier League side produced one of their best displays for some time as they ran out 5-2 winners in Orlando to secure top spot in Group G.
After an underwhelming 2024-25 campaign, it was a result that indicated their recent frustrations could be behind them and underlined their credentials to win the tournament.
They will now return to the Camping World Stadium to face Saudi Arabia's Al Hilal for a place in the quarter-finals on Monday (Tuesday 2am UK).
Silva, the new City captain, said: 'We've always been potential winners in all competitions that we play.
'Obviously it's just one game but we're happy that the performance was the way it was.
'It shows that we're improving, we're coming back to the levels and to the standards that we got people used to at this club. That's good.
'That's a good sign for next season. It's not only for this competition, but we want to build to the whole season, to the whole year, because what happened last year was quite disappointing for all of us.
'We want to change, we want to be better. This was a great performance and it shows that we can do it again.'
Haaland's goal was his 300th in senior football (John Raoux/AP)
City had gone into the game trailing Juventus on goals scored and needing to win to secure the theoretically easier route through the knockout stages.
What they produced rendered their frustration to score a seventh goal against Al Ain in their previous game irrelevant.
Jeremy Doku's early strike was cancelled out when Teun Koopmeiners pounced on an Ederson mistake but an own goal from Pierre Kalulu restored City's lead.
Erling Haaland – with his 300th career goal for club and country – added a third before Phil Foden and Savinho turned it into a rout. Dusan Vlahovic scored a late Juve consolation.
City were beaten 2-0 by Juve in the Champions League during their worst spell of form last season but the team, rejuvenated by several new arrivals since, now look a different proposition.
Silva said: 'We had a very good performance against a tough team. They showed that in the past, they beat us last season.
'We wanted to prove that what happened last season will not happen this season, hopefully.'
Silva will captain City in the coming season (Bradley Collyer/AP)
Silva was chosen as captain by Pep Guardiola after the City manager decided not to hold his usual squad vote this summer.
'It's probably one of the biggest honours of my career,' the Portuguese said. 'I'm going to start my ninth season at the club. All that experience, I will try to pass it to the younger guys.
'But the leadership in a team, it's not about one guy. It's about each one of us being our own leader and helping the guy next to us in the dressing room.
'I will need that help to help the team achieve a lot of things and hopefully win titles.'
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