Man City eyeing Club World Cup glory as springboard

This summer's Club World Cup in the United States looks like a lifeline for a Manchester City side who have had a season 2024-25 to forget. For the first time since Pep Guardiola's first season at the Etihad Stadium (2016-17), the Mancunian side have failed to add any major trophies to their trophy cabinet.

Quickly discarded from the Premier League title race, where their performance has been tremendously irregular since Rodri's serious injury, the Sky Blues were not able to secure any of the domestic cup titles (eliminated very early from the EFL Cup and runner-up in the FA Cup), apart from completing a bad Champions League in which they miraculously passed the League Phase and were crushed (3-6) by Real Madrid in the round of 32.

Therefore, this new Club World Cup is both an opportunity and a necessity for City, who, of course, go into it in what is perhaps one of their best moments of the season. With an affordable group (Juventus, Al Ain and Wydad Casablanca) and a group stage that looks set to be a friendly one (on paper, Borussia Dortmund are their main threat in the first two knockout rounds), the semi-finals should be the minimum required for the English side.

Squad list

Players to watch

Undoubtedly, the great star of this Manchester City is Erling Haaland. The Norwegian, who is finishing his third season, has not had his best performance this season. Despite this, he has scored more than 30 goals in all competitions, 22 of them in the Premier League. Moreover, the No 9 is in top form, as he scored in his last league game with the Cityzens and also found the net in the international break with Norway.

Beyond Haaland, the Mancunians have a number of top players to keep an eye on at this World Cup. One of them is Rodri, who looks set to play a major role after a near-blank season following a serious knee injury. Similarly, many eyes will be on Tijjani Reijnders, who will be making his debut with the Mancunian side in this tournament after an excellent season with Milan in which he scored 15 goals and provided 4 assists.

Coach

Everything about Pep Guardiola has already been written. What can we say about the man who for many is the best coach in history. With a very characteristic style in which possession and attack take precedence over everything else, the coach from Santpedor has been synonymous with success in his teams since his beginnings, although this year, between injuries, poor reinforcements and a drop in the level of some of his players, he is experiencing one of the toughest seasons of his career.

With his trophy cabinet blank in recent months, the Catalan coach, after 553 games with the English side and 18 titles at the Etihad, will try to rack his brains in search of solutions to help City win the Club World Cup. The final stretch of the season, with the exception of the FA Cup final, was already positive for the Mancunians, but Guardiola, with a versatile squad that allows him to vary easily between four and three defenders (with two wing-backs), will surely give a twist to his plans to make the Mancunian team indecipherable and competitive this summer.

Group stage fixtures

Matchday 1 

Manchester City kick off the competition on Wednesday 18th June (18:00, Spanish time) at Lincoln Financial Field (Philadelphia) against Wydad Casablanca, in theory the weakest opponent. It will be the Sky Blues' first official match against a team from the African continent.

Matchday 2

In their second match, Manchester City will face Al Ain at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium (Atlanta) on Monday 23rd June (03:00, Spanish time). To date, the Cityzens have won their only competitive match against an AFC team: 0-3 against Urawa Reds in the last edition (in the previous format) of the Club World Cup.

Matchday 3 

Finally, at the end of the group stage, Manchester City will face Juventus, the Mancunians' toughest rivals on paper, on Thursday 26th June (21:00, Spanish time) at the Camping World Stadium (Orlando). These clubs have met seven times, with only one English win, two draws and four Italian victories.

Possible starting XI