1. Man City crushed Juventus in Orlando and confirmed themselves as one of the strongest candidates for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup.
With a spectacular performance from Rodri, flashes from Ait Nouri, the mark of Doku – who was like a “magician” through the situations of penetrating the middle – Pep Guardiola's team played beautiful and effective football.
Man City took the top spot in Group G with 9 absolute points, met Al Hilal in the round of 16, thereby opening the journey to the final (with Inter Milan, Chelsea and Brazilian representatives).
Pep Guardiola is back to basics. Rodri is not at his best yet, but just playing average is enough to confirm that he is the best holding midfielder in the world .
The Spaniard is slowly recovering from the serious injury he suffered last autumn, and Guardiola has built a tactical structure that keeps him from moving too much.
Rodri played as the sole anchor, supported by Reijnders and Bernardo Silva to ease the defensive load. With him alone (94% accurate passes), in his first start since the 2-2 draw with Arsenal (22/9/2024), the team was stable and had better ball control.
2. Around Rodri, Man City players constantly switched positions, especially on the two wings.
Reijnders and Bernardo Silva were very active, combining with the two wings to build a matrix that left Juventus with no way out.
The dense defense and midfield of the Serie A representative quickly fell apart right from the first collisions.
City don’t even need Marmoush’s explosiveness as a centre-forward. The Egyptian lacks the agility, while Savinho – who plays on the right wing – lacks the flair to time his runs through the middle.
Most of the time, Savinho missed his chance and left the passer with no option to follow up.
City still have Ait Nouri on the left wing, though, who regularly makes creative plays.
Ait Nouri broke into midfield, received the ball from Rodri and set up Doku, who got behind Alberto Costa to open the scoring. Bernardo Silva had forced Di Gregorio to block a close-range shot.
City were completely dominant, although in the 11th minute, a poor pass from Ederson allowed Koopmeiners to equalize 1-1 for Juventus .
The goal was simply an individual error. But that mistake did not faze Pep Guardiola's team, especially when Doku continued to torment Juventus' defense from the left.
The Belgian kept getting past Costa and Kalulu in one-on-one (and even two-on-one) situations, inspiring his teammates. Every time he got the ball, Doku was able to outplay his opponents.
His success rate is extremely high. Doku also shows himself in many different roles in attack. He becomes the perfect link in the trio with Reijnders and Ait Nouri - a framework that promises a lot in the new season.
3. If Man City's left wing is like a harmonious choir, then the right wing is also classy thanks to Matheus Nunes' ability to read situations well.
The player Guardiola converted from central midfield to right-back is gradually proving himself a worthy successor to Kyle Walker.
His diagonal runs created unpredictable passes, breaking down the Juventus defence and contributing to the goal that made it 2-1 – Kalulu scored an own goal after a pass from Nunes.
Even the heavy tropical rain that fell on Florida after the 60th minute could not stop the Man City dance. Haaland came on and scored, after Nunes broke free and assisted.
Against an experimental Juventus, Man City played like a machine programmed to win 3 points.
With Rodri taken off and replaced by Gundogan – who was also in fine form – the English side added two more goals through Foden and Savinho, with Vlahovic’s late strike not helping Juventus to salvage anything.
The difficult season in Europe seems to have been left behind, with Rodri back, Man City activated with explosive play, veterans like Gundogan or Bernardo Silva finding joy, and new players quickly integrating.
Source: https://vietnamnet.vn/man-city-vui-dap-juventus-5-2-dang-cap-qua-bong-vang-rodri-2415662.html
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