‘It turned out perfect’, Gundogan on sublime Al Ain opener | OneFootball

Ilkay Gundogan says he was delighted to contribute to City’s emphatic 6-0 FIFA Club World Cup win over Al Ain with a sublime brace in our second outing at the tournament.

And the midfielder revealed he was caught in two minds before producing a fantastic lob to open the scoring against the United Arab Emirates outfit.

Looking to secure our place in the knockout stage with three points in Atlanta, the Blues made a perfect start when Gundogan recycled the ball at a corner before expertly chipping into the back of the net.

Further strikes from Claudio Echeverri and Erling Haaland followed before the 34-year-old grabbed his second with 15 minutes remaining ahead of goals from Oscar Bobb and Rayan Cherki.

And the German was pleased to be back on the scoresheet for Pep Guardiola’s side.

“I was a bit stuck between doing what turned out in the end,” he admitted.

“But also [thinking of] crossing the ball to the second post because I knew, especially second balls, when they drop it’s always very dangerous.

“Between the two things in my mind it turned out to be perfect and obviously I’m taking it and I was very happy about it because it was a good opener for us in the game.

“Happy to score a second one as well in the second half and contribute to the win.”

The win over Al Ain secures our place in the knockout stages of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup ahead of our final Group G assignment with Juventus.

We enter the decider for top spot in the table one place below the Italian giants on goals scored despite possessing the same points and goal difference.

Although the goal we needed against Vladimir Ivic's team to leapfrog Juventus evaded us, Gundogan believes the result in Atlanta was no less than City deserved.

He added: “Throughout periods it was a really good performance. I think we had our moments in the first half and then also the second part of the second half.

“Unfortunately, we started the second half a bit slow so there wasn’t much time in the end to score another goal which would put us ahead of Juventus before the last group stage game.

“That’s a bit slightly disappointing, but I think the result speaks for itself and it was really deserved.”