Man City starts with victory
© Imago
Xabi Alonso had little fun in the debut at Real Madrid’s coaching bench. A month after the farewell to Bayer Leverkusen, the 43-year-old had to be content with Spain’s record champions in the first game at the club World Cup in Miami with a 1-1 (1: 1) against Al-Hilal from Saudi Arabia. Real captain Federico Valverde failed in added time with a penalty time on the overall very strong goalkeeper Bono.
In front of 62,415 spectators in the Hard Rock Stadium, most in real-white, the Youngster Gonzalo García, which was upgraded for the sick, brought the royal in the lead after a counterattack (34th minute). The strong Al-Hilal with the ex-Bayern professional João Cancelo came more than deserved to compensate with a penalty of the Portuguese Rúben Neves (41.). Al-Hilal was better for a long time. After the break, the real professionals at least added something. Substitute Arda Güler shot the crossbar (46.).
At 33 degrees in the shadow there was also a debut on the coaching bench at Al-Hilal. 18 days after the bitter 0: 5 with Inter Milan in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain in Munich, the team from Saudi Arabia’s capital Riad played for the first time under the guidance of Simone Inzaghi. The focus was on Alonso, who is Real as the successor to Carlo Ancelotti again.
The Basque coached on the edge of the field, but did not yet see much of his team, in which international Antonio Rüdiger was not yet operational again after a knee operation. Real opponents in Group H are Red Bull Salzburg and CF Pachuca from Mexico.
Manchester City starts with victory in club World Cup
Defending champion Manchester City started the club World Cup with a unsuspecting victory. In Philadelphia, the ten -time English champion prevailed 2-0 (2-0) against Wydad Casablanca from Morocco. Phil Foden brought the Citizens in the lead in the second minute. After a corner of Foden, Jérémy Doku increased to 2-0 for the team of coach Pep Guardiola.in Group C in the 42nd minute you can still meet City on Juventus and Al Ain FC.
After the quick leadership, Foden could have added, but awarded in a promising position. After that, the English were surprisingly not so dominant despite more play shares and possession of the ball and the Moroccans were dangerous about counterattacks. But due to a positional error after the corner, Doku networked relatively easily to the favorite’s second goal.
In the 55th minute, Doku had the 3-0 on his foot, but keeper El Mehdi Benabid just came to the ball. Starstormer Erling Haaland was initially on the bench like the former DFB captain İlkay Gündoğan. Haaland, like world soccer players Rodri, who had torn the cruciate ligament last September, was substituted in the 60th minute. Gündoğan was allowed to go to the field in the 68th minute. But they couldn’t set big accents.
In the 75th minute, Haaland put on the shot from around 15 meters, but hunted the ball just over the crossbar. In the third minute of stoppage time, Haaland failed in free position on Benabid. Previously, Manchester’s Rico Lewis had seen the red card in the 88th minute after a rough foul.