Manchester City delivered a five-star masterclass in sweltering Orlando to dismantle Juventus 5-2, topping Group G with a perfect record and underlining their status as Club World Cup frontrunners.
Jeremy Doku opened the scoring with a cool finish inside 10 minutes, but Teun Koopmeiners immediately capitalised on a sloppy Ederson pass to level for Juve. It was a brief setback in a match City otherwise dominated with supreme confidence and technical precision.
A calamitous own goal from Pierre Kalulu restored City’s lead before half-time, and Erling Haaland, off the bench and bundled in his 300th career goal with a mis-hit that somehow found the net. It was symbolic of a night where everything went City’s way, even when it didn’t look pretty.
Phil Foden then tapped in a fourth before Savinho sent a thunderbolt past a helpless Wojciech Szczęsny to cap City’s fifth and finest of the evening. Dusan Vlahovic pulled one back for Juventus late on, but it did little to alter the mood of inevitability that hung over the match.
Rodri’s long-awaited return to the starting lineup brought balance and bite to midfield. His positioning and passing allowed Bernardo Silva and Tijjani Reijnders to pull the strings in the final third, helping City glide through Juve’s lines with ease.
The tactical setup also showcased Guardiola’s evolving use of full-backs, with Rayan Aït-Nouri’s clever inverted runs carving space for Doku, while Matheus Nunes provided raw power on the opposite flank. City’s wide play was vibrant, fluid, and crucially productive.
With all three group games won, City now face the runners-up of Group H in the last 16, avoiding heavyweights like Real Madrid and Bayern Munich, at least for now. Staying in Orlando also gives them rare consistency in a tournament that has tested every team’s travel endurance.
