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Manchester City stormed into the last 16 of the Club World Cup with a commanding 6-0 win over Al Ain in Atlanta on Sunday.
In a match dubbed the “Abu derby”—pitting City, owned by UAE vice-president Sheikh Mansour, against Al Ain, led by his brother and UAE president Sheikh Mohamed—there was little sign of familial mercy as the Premier League champions ran riot.
Ilkay Gundogan opened the scoring early on with a looping cross-come-shot that evaded everyone, including Erling Haaland at the far post, and nestled in the net.
Rising Argentine talent Claudio Echeverri then marked his first start with a sublime free kick before Haaland added a third from the penalty spot just before halftime.
The second half saw City tighten their grip, with Gundogan grabbing his second with a clever dinked finish. Norwegian youngster Oscar Bobb added a fifth with an assured strike at the near post before Rayan Cherki, signed from Lyon, capped off the night with his first goal for the club—a thumping effort from the edge of the area.
The win sees City draw level with Juventus at the top of Group G on six points, with their meeting in Orlando on Thursday set to decide who tops the group and potentially avoids Real Madrid in the last 16.
“We played a little better than the first game, especially in the second half,” said Pep Guardiola. “Now we’ll have to see whether we finish first or second.”
Guardiola, who had spoken before the match about needing to trim his squad, opted to rotate entirely from the side that beat Wydad Casablanca in the group opener. Haaland returned to the starting line-up alongside new signing Rayan Aït-Nouri and 19-year-old Echeverri.
Despite a shaky opening period, City quickly settled and dominated proceedings. Al Ain, who suffered a 5-0 defeat to Juventus in their first match, offered little resistance once the floodgates opened. They had a brief chance to equalise at 1-0, but Nassim Chadli’s low drive was brilliantly turned away by Stefan Ortega.
Echeverri’s curling free kick on 27 minutes doubled City’s advantage and underlined why the teenager is so highly rated. Haaland, after missing a good chance in open play, made no mistake from the spot following a VAR-reviewed foul on Manuel Akanji.
The second half brought more of the same. Haaland was twice denied by goalkeeper Khalid Eisa before Gundogan coolly clipped in his second. Substitute Oscar Bobb danced through the defence for the fifth, and Cherki added gloss with a powerful low drive to make it six.
Gundogan, who has been linked with a move to Galatasaray, said there was only one small regret from a near-perfect evening.
“Unfortunately, we started the second half a bit slowly, so there wasn’t much time left to score the last goal that would’ve put us ahead of Juve on goals scored,” he told DAZN. “That’s the slightly disappointing part, but the result speaks for itself—it was fully deserved.”
