Overview
Although the 2024-2025 season did not achieve the expected high results, Manchester City is still trying its best at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025. And that is a big problem for all the remaining teams.
In the group stage, Man City scored more goals (23) than any other team, had the most shots (60) and had the highest expected goals total (9.9).
Coach Pep Guardiola has a perfect record at the FIFA Club World Cup, winning all 11 of his matches in many different versions.
His teams have won all of those matches with a total score of 38-44, including a total score of 13-2 in this year's tournament. Notably, Guardiola's sides have won 10 of those 11 games by at least two goals.
The Citizens are the only team to win all three of their group stage matches this year. The most recent overwhelming 5-2 victory over Juventus helped them qualify for the round of 16 as the top team in Group G.
Guardiola has carefully managed Rodri's minutes on the pitch, helping him return to action after missing most of last season with a knee injury. The Spaniard has only played 125 of his 270 minutes, but City have looked much better with him on the pitch.
Establishing the pace from midfield, Rodri has made more passes to break the opponent's defense (25) than any other City player in the tournament, an average of 18 passes in 90 minutes. Only 3 players could have achieved a better rate in the group (playing more than 100 minutes).
Al Hilal advanced to the knockout round under the leadership of new coach Simone Inzaghi. They have proven themselves to be a team that is unlikely to be defeated in a difficult group including Real Madrid and Salzburg.
The Saudi Arabian team won 2-0 against Pachuca, thanks to goals from Salem Al Dawsari and Marcos Leonardo. These are also two of the club's top scorers this season. Al Dawsari has scored 27 goals in all competitions since the start of the 2024-2025 season, while Marcos Leonardo has scored 26 goals.
Defensively, they have a rich defense with players such as Joao Cancelo, kalidou Koulibaly and Renan Lodi. In Cancelo's case, he will face his former club Man City after leaving the Etihad in January 2023.
Predicting the result
Supercomputer Opta believes Man City are more likely to win this match. Guardiola's side have a 75.0% chance of moving on after 90 minutes of play.
Al Hilal only has a 9.9% chance of winning during his official competition. The remaining 15.1% chance is that the match will have to enter extra time.
Score prediction: Man City 2-0 Al Hilal
The match between Man City and Al Hilal takes place at 8:00 a.m. on July 1 (Vietnam time).
