Pep Guardiola reveals Manchester City dressing room reflection on Juventus thrashing | OneFootball

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola extolled the virtues of his squad after their convincing beating of Juventus in the final group-stage fixture of their FIFA Club World Cup campaign.

Jeremy Doku, Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Savinho were all on the scoresheet as Manchester City put the Old Lady to the sword and sealed an emphatic 5-2 victory in Florida to maintain their perfect run in the Club World Cup.

City have looked promising since they landed in the United States for the tournament, which will see them face Al-Hilal in the Round of 16 stage after a clean sweep of wins over Wydad AC, Al Ain and Juventus in the group-stage.

New signings Rayan Ait-Nouri, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki have taken no time to adapt to their new surroundings and have received a host of plaudits for their early performances that have given Manchester City fans great hope heading into the 2025-26 campaign.

Pep Guardiola was pleased with Manchester City’s display against Juventus and spoke at length to reflect upon his side’s performance against the Serie A giants, who beat his side in the UEFA Champions League group-stage last season.

“Today was more or less a final, we talked about that,” Guardiola said, as quoted by the club’s official website.

“It doesn’t matter what happened, the first target was to qualify, but we never know if it’s better to finish first or second.

“It’s how we play every game, friendly and official game, to win it. Today we did it, that’s what I’m pleased about.”

Manchester City seem to have their mojo back after enduring an uncharacteristically underwhelming and trophyless season, finishing third in the Premier League and crashing out of the UEFA Champions League at the Round of 16 stage.

“The players know it was the first time in a long time that we performed the way we performed (against Juventus),” Guardiola added.

“Today, we adjusted a few things and the performance was really good against an incredibly strong team that made an incredible impact in the first two games as well.

“I’m really pleased because the most important thing is the players have to realise what we have to do to back what we were the last decade.”

Guardiola touched on on the injury crisis that hampered his squad from maintaining their standards last season, with the Blues even forced into entering the January transfer market to spend £181.5 million on four new signings to alleviate Guardiola’s troubles and give the Catalan a much-needed injection of fresh blood.

The Manchester City manager added: “Last season, we had an incredible squad and team but we were injured, 50% of the players. We couldn’t compete and this season we’re going to try to maintain this rhythm as long as possible.

“(Against Juventus) We were so incredibly aggressive without the ball and with it sometimes we were quicker for the man marking.

“Ederson was an incredible quarterback today, making incredible long balls for Omar (Marmoush) and Erling (Haaland), and especially after we had the patience to make a lot of passes to be calm.

“The important thing today because we’d already qualified (for the knockout stages), so to go through, you have to beat the best teams, you can face them before or after.

“The most important thing is that we can do it again. I had the feeling the players felt, I don’t have to tell them, they felt we can compete in that way like we have in last decade.

“Last season, it couldn’t happen for one reason, because we had no players. Today, we had two incredible central defenders and four on the bench, last year we had one at a time. The best player in the world, all season out.

“That’s why we struggled a lot, we couldn’t train, since day one with Pep (Lijnders) James (French), Kolo (Toure) we made a step up in training. The training session is unbelievable, how we go.

“This is the only way to survive in the Premier League, Europe, in all the competitions. One decade, twelve years ago never, in the world you would never imagine (Manchester) City in the Club World Cup. Never.

“We played in the mid-table, now since Sheikh Mansour took over the club, we are facing the elite teams, and it’s an honour.

“We want to stay here longer, because the place we’ve been in Boca Raton is amazing. We want to face every game with this rhythm.

“Fair enough, if we play with that rhythm and win or lose it’s fine, in football you can’t win everything, but we have to refine ourself again.

“We want to win the (Club) World Cup but the important thing is to connect ourselves again like we were in last season.”