An early Phil Foden strike and second goal from Jeremy Doku just before half-time was enough to earn City victory and a three-point haul in our opening Group G clash.
The clash played out in searing heat and humidity at Philadelphia’s Lincoln Financial Field, also saw encouraging competitive debuts for summer signings Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki.
And for the boss it represented positive first steps at the outset of the newly expanded 32-team Club World Cup.
“We had good moments, many new players and the first game in this Group Stage is always important,” Guardiola said.
“We started really well then after had some problems, especially when losing simple balls. When you lose simple balls, the transition is a little bit there.
“But I saw many good things.
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“This is the first game, we’ll prepare the next one with the new players.
“The first three points is important.
“We have the second one to try to arrive in the last game to have qualified then the last game to define if we’re first.
“The first step is done, this is important. We’ll recover, train good in the next few days and then have fresh legs for the next game.
“We’ll try to step by step improve things. It’s normal in this stage with new players and a lot of people coming from big injuries, step by step we’re going to take the right tempo.”
The game featured a man of the match display from Foden who weighed in with an assist as well as his early strike.
And for the boss there were several other encouraging signs that will allow City to build on this opening win.
“Yeah really good. It was a good delivery for the second and the first, Phil’s always there,” he added.
“We have players in different positions, so Vitor Reis played a really good game, Nathan Ake for six or seven months not a lot without playing.
“Many players, we need to give them minutes otherwise if they come back from a long injury and don’t play they’ll never get it.
“Next game ten new players will be there to try and win the next one.”
How to follow the FIFA Club World Cup 2025
DAZN will broadcast every minute and every moment from the event, with all 63 matches, live-streamed, free to view on DAZN globally*, and in multiple languages.
If you are already a DAZN subscriber or Freemium member, then the competition is part of your current membership.
To sign up for a free DAZN account now you only need an email address to register, with no hidden costs or fees.
You can then watch all the action on the DAZN App via smart TVs, smartphones, tablets, streaming devices, game consoles and web browsers.
Join now to start watching for free on DAZN.
Every City match will be covered in full across mancity.com and our official app, with our usual offering of a Matchday Centre and Matchday Live followed by a match report, written and video reaction and highlights from the US.
*DAZN is not currently available in the following territories: Belarus, Cuba, China, Iran, North Korea, Russia, Syria
