Manchester City defeated Juventus 5-2 on Thursday to show their Club World Cup credentials, while Vinicius Junior led Real Madrid to a 3-0 victory over Salzburg to advance to the last 16.
Al Hilal of Saudi Arabia defeated Pachuca of Mexico 2-0 to defeat Salzburg in the final match of the day’s other game to claim a 2-1 victory over Wydad Casablanca.
With a victory over Juventus in front of 54, 320 spectators at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, City became the only team to have won all three of their group games.
After goals from Salem Al-Dawsari and Marcos Leonardo against Pachuca, City will now face Al Hilal, the only Asian representative in the following round.
City winger Jeremy Doku opened the scoring, saying, “We played well and I’m happy with the victory.”
After Rayan Ait-Nouri’s arrival with a clever ball set him up, Doku pounced for the opening kick.
However, in one of the few instances where Guardiola’s team let their focus wander, City stopper Ederson passed the ball to Teun Koopmeiners, who levelled for Juventus.
Pierre Kalulu resurrected City’s lead with a powerful header from Matheus Nunes’ cross.
After the break, the Premier League side stepped up a level with Erling Haaland’s introduction in an effort to make up for a poor season by their standards, which saw them finish the year without a significant trophy.
Before Savinho headed home from close range for the fifth, the Norwegian striker scored the third and assisted with the fourth for Phil Foden.
Dusan Vlahovic scored for Juve late on, but it did not detract from Rodri’s impressive comeback. City were given a first start after his protracted injury layoff, giving him his first start.
Igor Tudor, the coach of Juventus, said, “Manchester City have a lot better (quality of) players than us, that’s the truth, and that needs to be acknowledged.”
“We didn’t have the right timing for us to play better tonight,” he said.
In a meeting between two teams that were already eliminated but were hoping to seal the deal with a victory in Washington, DC, Al Ain defeated Wydad.
Cassius Mailula, a striker from South Africa, gave the Moroccans a early lead before Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba, a striker from Togo, leveled from the spot for Al Ain.
After Juve and City both fell to 5-0 and 6-0, respectively, and Paraguayan international Alejandro Romero curled home from the edge of the box to claim the team’s victory over the United Arab Emirates, the team earned its first goal of the tournament.
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Vinicius stars in Madrid’s success
In Philadelphia, Vinicius defeated Salzburg to claim the top spot in Group H, scoring one goal and making another with a dash of class.
On Tuesday in Miami, Real will face Juventus in the last 16.
On a rainy night at Lincoln Financial Field, the Brazil star Vinicius opened the scoring after Jude Bellingham made a superb defense-splitting pass on 40 minutes, much to the delight of the 64, 811 crowd.
In stoppage time, Vinicius then cleverly set up Federico Valverde to make it 2-0.
Gonzalo Garcia’s late goal, his second of the season, sealed Xabi Alonso’s side’s first victory of FIFA’s new competition.
Alonso told broadcaster DAZN, “I’m pleased with the boys, and now the interesting phase begins.”
Real were without top scorer Kylian Mbappe, who hasn’t played at the tournament while he recovers from illness.
“We anticipated Kylian would make it, but it wasn’t,” he said. We have four days left, and I want to be both cautious and optimistic at the same time,” Alonso said.
