Manchester City hit Al Ain for six on Sunday to secure a place in the last 16 of the Club World Cup after Real Madrid shrugged off an early red card to beat Mexican side Pachuca 3-1.
Red Bull Salzburg and Al Hilal drew 0-0 as the second round of group games at the tournament came to a conclusion.
The match between City and Al Ain in Atlanta was dubbed the ‘Abu derby’.
Ilkay Gundogan put City ahead early on before 19-year-old Claudio Echeverri netted his first goal for the club with a free-kick and Erland Haaland slotted in the third with a penalty in first-half stoppage time.
In the second half, Gundogan struck again before two substitutes joined in, with Oscar Bobb rolling in the fifth and Rayan Cherki grabbing his first City goal for 6-0.
The result, in a game watched by a crowd of over 40,000, means both City and Juventus are through to the knockout phase after each winning their first two matches in Group G.
They will now face each other in Orlando on Thursday to decide who tops the section.
“Now we have to see whether we’ll be first or second in the group,” said City coach Pep Guardiola, who changed his entire starting line-up following the 2-0 opening win against Wydad.
“We played a little bit better than the first game, especially in the second half.”
In Charlotte, Real Madrid overcame the early sending-off of Raul Asencio to beat Pachuca and get their first win under new coach Xabi Alonso.
Defender Asencio was dismissed after just seven minutes for pulling down Salomon Rondon with the Venezuelan clear on goal.
That left the Liga MX team sensing the chance for an upset in front of 70,248 fans at the home of the NFL’s Carolina Panthers.
Rudiger complains of racist insult: However, Real took the lead on 35 minutes when Jude Bellingham buried a left-foot shot into the bottom corner, and they scored again before the interval through Arda Guler. Fede Valverde got their third in the second half, with a deflected Elias Montiel effort pulling one back for Pachuca.
Alonso praised the way his team handled the early sending-off.
“It became really intense for us, but we defended with a lot of sacrifice and solidarity, which is what it takes,” he said.
Alonso also said that Real defender Antonio Rudiger had complained of a racist incident at the end of the game when the German was visibly angered following an exchange of words with Pachuca’s Gustavo Cabral.
“I think the FIFA protocol has been activated to investigate, but if it has happened, all measures should be taken and we support Antonio because it’s something unacceptable,” said the coach.
Cabral, the 39-year-old Argentinian centre-back, denied the accusations, saying his words had been misinterpreted.
Real are level at the top of Group H on four points with Salzburg, who play goalless draw with Al Hilal in Washington.
Pachuca coach Jaime Lozano said his team had failed to make the most of the extra man.
“We had a great start, (but) we did not make the most of our advantage. They have the strongest players in the world and their players were amazing. Their strongest feature is that they don’t need to play at their best to win any match, they were amazing,” he said.
Madrid and Salzburg meet each other next in Philadelphia. Al Hilal, the runners up at the 2022 Club World Cup, pressured Salzburg from the start, with nearly 62 percent possession through the first half.
They took 10 shots, but had just one on target. For the game, Al Hilal had four shots on goal.
It was clear that Al Hilal were missing the finishing touch of striker Aleksandar Mitrovic, who has missed both of the team’s Club World Cup matches with a muscle injury.
In the final moments, the crowd chanted for Al Hilal, urging the team to score. Al Hilal goalkeeper Yassine Bounou stopped a nearly point blank shot from Salzburg’s John Mellberg early in the second half. Moments later, Salzburg goalkeeper Christian Zawieschitzky saved a shot by Ruben Neves from outside the box as the game grew tense.
Agencies
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