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Manchester City have begun their Club World Cup defence with their Group G opener against Wydad AC.
City qualified for this tournament as Champions League 2023 winners and won the Club World Cup that same year, which earns them the right to defend their title as ‘the best club in the world’.
Meanwhile, Moroccan club Wydad earned their spot via winning Africa's version of the Champions League in 2023.
You can sign up to DAZN to watch every FIFA Club World Cup game for free.
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How about that for a lightning-fast start from Manchester City?! That's the fastest goal of the tournament so far.
Credit to Doku for making the run in behind and reaching the byline to cross the ball — a lovely move that paid off.
The two wingers both involved in beating their men to work it for Foden to score.
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3' Manchester City 1-0 Wydad AC
Only one minute and 54 seconds into the encounter, and City are ahead. Not the start Wydad would have hoped for.
Nathan Ake pings forward an aerial through ball for Jeremy Doku, who is kept onside by a sleeping defender, and he lifts it into the box. No City player gets there, though Cherki tries, but Wydad can't clear.
Foden collects it, the ball is recycled out to Savinho on the right, and the Brazilian gets to the byline and fires in a cross. A pretty poor parry back into danger from Benabid, and it's a simple first-time finish into the corner of a largely unguarded net.
Nice technique from Foden, albeit a pretty easy chance. That is the quickest ever goal in this competition, by the way!
2' Manchester City 1-0 Wydad AC
That didn't take long! Phil Foden with an early opener!
1' Manchester City 0-0 Wydad AC
It is Manchester City's first match against a Moroccan side, and Wydad's first ever match against English opposition in a competitive fixture.
Making history.
Wydad's ultras group are notoriously boisterous and they've certainly come here to make some noise.
Whistles whenever City have the ball.
Into the action we go!
Manchester City, the champions of the competition's former format, get their Club World Cup campaign underway.
Can Moroccan side Wydad spring a shock?
Let's find out!
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And we're seconds away from the action in Philly.
And it's via the weird individual walkouts.
It's been described as ‘a bit of a showbiz thing’, in The Athletic's piece below.
But for me is there anything less showbiz than thinking you're Hollywood when you're more Hollyoaks? (For U.S. fans, that's a very mediocre UK TV drama).
Not to have a go at the players of either side, but even the Manchester City players won't be fully known to the largely American crowds.
It just feels bizarre to have them walking out to smoke and pomp and ceremony when the fans are understandably lukewarm.
Anyway!
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The Lincoln Financial Field stadium has fewer massive groups of empty seats altogether, but that's not to say it's a sellout. Not by a long way.
I'd estimate the stadium is mainly half full.
The only truly packed part of the ground is the sea of red-clad Wydad fans behind one of the goals.
Pep Guardiola has been speaking to DAZN ahead of kick-off and has made it clear he plans to use all his players at this tournament, including a long-awaited return for Rodri.
The midfielder has been sidelined for eight months as he recovers from an ACL injury. Here's what Pep had to say: “Basically, everybody is going to play in this tournament.
“Everyone has to be involved otherwise it isn’t sustainable for the season, for physicality and for team spirit. I would love, I am desperate, we want to see him (Rodri) back but at the same time we want to make sure everything is fine.”
City fans will keep everything crossed.
Only 10 minutes to go until kick-off here in Philadelphia.
Don't go anywhere!
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…basically all of Manchester City's players. One they may want to keep a particular eye on is new signing Rayan Cherki. Over to Thom Harris:
Here’s a bold claim, but not an outrageous one — there is no better player to watch in world football than Rayan Cherki when he is in the mood.
The 21-year-old is ludicrously talented, consistently creative when he is given license to drift into pockets of space across the pitch. An ideas man, the wildcard, someone to rely on when defences drop deep.
The best thing about Cherki, however, is that it’s all instinctive. Cherki’s move from Lyon to Manchester City feels a long time in the making for regular viewers of French football, and the Club World Cup represents a fantastic opportunity to see how the playmaker will fit in.
The prospect of Cherki lining up in a star-studded squad, particularly after he stole the show on his debut for France this month, is about as exciting as it gets. After Kevin De Bruyne, the idea at City could be to give the Frenchman the creative keys.
Maybe that explains why Rayhi, left in the above picture, looks so serious. As The Athletic's Mark Carey wrote, Rayhi had a good season personally despite a disappointing campaign for his club.
He ended the 2024-25 season as the joint-top scorer of the Botola Pro (Moroccan first division) with 11 goals. Those 11 league goals largely came from a nominal left-wing role, but he is quick to highlight his versatility.
“I can play anywhere in the attack, but I perform best when I have freedom of movement, which is how I play at Wydad,” Rayhi recently said in an interview with FIFA.
If Wydad are to make a dent against any of their Group G opponents, Rayhi would appear to be the one to have a say in it. Though he'll have to do so off the bench today!
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Left-back Rayan Ait-Nouri and skilful midfielders Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki were brought in by Manchester City in time to be registered for the tournament, as was backup goalkeeper Marcus Bettinelli.
Reijnders and Cherki have been given their debuts today, with Ait-Nouri on the bench.
Wydad, meanwhile, signed defenders Bart Meijers and Guilherme Ferreira, both of whom start in a back five today, plus former Watford winger Nordin Amrabat, on the right flank.
New midfielder Stephane Aziz Ki is among the replacements, while forwards Hamza Hannouri and Omar Al Somah do not make the squad.
Proper stuff, these Wydad shirts. You often read stories about how, when newly-formed clubs were figuring out what colours to wear, they chose something they thought would intimidate the opposition.
Maybe I’m just being duped (again), because all of the announcement photos for this kit have the players mocked up as being taller than 30-storey buildings, but this does feel quite intimidating.
Bold lines, bright red colours, tight cuffs: this lot from Morocco look like they mean business. You don’t get that many Kappa kits these days, and when you see what they’re capable of, you realise what a shame that is.
City's, meanwhile, is pretty nice. If you’re a sash fundamentalist, you could argue that it should be left to those who commit to it rather than just dipping in for one season, but this works quite nicely, even if it does look a bit like it’s been applied by a half-hearted painter-and-decorator.
It’s also exactly the right shade of blue for City, which is crucial.
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It looks like plenty of Wydad fans have made the trip from Casablanca based on the images being shown on DAZN's coverage of this match.
They're 22-time domestic champions and three time CAF Champions League winners and so it's easy to see why fans have travelled in numbers — this is a team with a prestigious history who will be targeting success and an upset this afternoon.
Can they make the difference to their team's performance?
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Expectations are high for the side from Casablanca despite a tumultuous season. They have won the Moroccan league a record 22 times and won three African Champions League titles.
The most recent of the three was in 2021-22, under the management of Walid Regragui, who many will know as the current manager of the Moroccan national team.
The Moroccan side have typically been synonymous with a direct, transitional style of play, but Rhulani Mokwena joined with a focus on shifting their in-possession approach. While there were signs of progress, Mokwena was sacked in April.
After an eight-game winless run that saw Wydad fail to mount a serious title challenge under Mokwena, interim coach Mohamed Amine Benhachem oversaw three straight wins as Wydad finished on a high going into the tournament.
Mounting a credible challenge to Group G might be a step too far, especially after such a disruptive few months.
Thank goodness for the third night of the Club World Cup. The febrile passion of Boca Juniors vs Benfica and Flamengo vs Esperance de Tunis gave a sleepy tournament an overdue jolt.
The quality of the football was high. The teams were evenly matched. But those games were bathed in the intensity of their crowds, too, and the feeling that every kick of the ball, every touch, and every decision made by the officials mattered.
What a contrast to Chelsea’s 2-0 win over LAFC. The mood inside suggested everyone had arrived by accident — as if they had taken a wrong turning and found themselves in a seat.
This sterility is the Club World Cup’s great obstacle. It’s a trite remark to compare it with the experience of watching pre-season sport, but the sporadic applause and empty seats arouse that familiar conflict.
Let's hope for better today.
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There is a $1billion prize pot to be shared, so you can understand why clubs haven’t kicked up too much of a fuss about participating. Half of that fund will be allocated to clubs for simply participating, meaning UEFA’s 12 clubs get a slice of $306m.
A ranking “based on sporting and commercial criteria” means European clubs will get between $12.8m and $38.2m just for turning up, while the six South American clubs get a flat fee of $15.2m.
Auckland City, the only Oceania club, will receive $3.58m and for the rest of the clubs it’s $9.55m for qualifying. That leaves $475m to be shared based on performance, where a perfect tournament on the way to the title would earn $87.62m.
In fact, the final will become the most lucrative game in football with $40m going to the winners and $30m to the losers — exceeding the $47m (€43.5m) on offer in the UEFA Champions League final.