We look
ahead to this Group G match at the 2025 Club
World Cup with our Man City vs Wydad AC prediction
and preview.
Man City vs Wydad AC Stats: The Key
Insights
The Opta
supercomputer is heavily backing Man City to defeat Wydad AC in
this match, with the English club winning 87.2% of the pre-match
simulations.
Pep Guardiola won the previous format of the FIFA Club World
Cup on four occasions, the joint-most for a manager alongside Carlo
Ancelotti.
Rodri has only ended on the losing side in one of his last 79
Manchester City appearances (W60 D18) – the 2024 FA Cup final
defeat to Man Utd.
Pep Guardiola’s quest for a fifth FIFA Club World Cup title
begins with a meeting with Moroccan side Wydad AC on Wednesday at
Lincoln Financial Field, Philadelphia.
The Spanish coach won the previous format of the competition on
four occasions, the joint-most for a manager alongside Carlo
Ancelotti. He lifted the trophy with three different clubs, which
is also a record: Barcelona
in 2009 and 2011, Bayern
Munich in 2013, and Manchester
City in 2023.
City fans will be looking forward to seeing more of Rodri
on the pitch following his long-awaited return from injury on 20
May against Bournemouth in the Premier League. He only featured in
four competitive games in 2024-25 but has proved integral to the
club’s success in recent years. The Spanish midfielder has only
ended on the losing side in one of his last 79 Man City appearances
(W60 D18), losing the 2024 FA Cup final to Man Utd.
Erling
Haaland scored 31 goals in 44 matches in all competitions in
2024-25 for Manchester
City, with only Mohamed Salah (34 for Liverpool) scoring more
for a Premier
League side. Despite this, his goals weren’t enough for City to
secure a major trophy, making this their first season without one
since 2016-17, which was Guardiola’s first at the club.
This game could provide City supporters with their first glance
at exciting summer signings Rayan
Aït-Nouri, Rayan
Cherki and
Tijjani Reijnders.
Wydad are set to become the first Moroccan team to face English
opposition in history, while City have only faced non-European
teams twice before, both at the 2023 FIFA Club World Cup when they
beat Urawa Red Diamonds of Japan and Fluminense of Brazil.
Wydad made two appearances in the previous FIFA Club World Cup
format, the joint-most for a club from Morocco, but failed to win a
single match (2 defeats in 2017, 1 draw followed by elimination on
penalties in the 2022 edition).
They finished the season third in the Moroccan top-flight table,
16 points off Botola league champions RS Berkane.
Man City vs Wydad
AC
Prediction
Manchester City are heavy favourites to begin their quest for
Club World Cup glory with a victory. They defeated their opponents
from Casablanca in 87.2% of the Opta supercomputer simulations,
while they lost just 4.1% of the time, and a draw was played out in
the remaining 8.7% of sims.
The Premier League side are expected to progress from
Group G into the knockout stages by the supercomputer, with
City getting to the last 16 in 97.2% of the current 10,000
simulations. Wydad (9.9%), along with Al Ain (5.2%) are serious
outsiders in the group, with Juventus also expected to progress to
the round of 16 by the supercomputer (87.6%).
Man City vs Wydad
AC Squads
Manchester City
Rúben Dias, Tijjani Reijnders, John Stones, Nathan Aké, Omar
Marmoush, Erling Haaland, Jérémy Doku, Marcus Bettinelli, Nico
González, Rodri, Stefan Ortega, İlkay Gündoğan, Bernardo Silva,
Rayan Aït-Nouri, Vitor Reis, Joško Gvardiol, Manuel Akanji,
Savinho, Matheus Nunes, Rayan Cherki, Claudio Echeverri, Ederson,
Abdukodir Khusanov, Phil Foden, Oscar Bobb, Nico O’Reilly, Rico
Lewis.
Head Coach: Pep Guardiola
Wydad AC
Youssef El Motie, Mohamed Moufid, Thembinkosi Lorch, Ismail
Moutaraji, Mickaël Malsa, Mohamed Rayhi, Samuel Obeng, Arthur,
Nordin Amrabat, Mehdi Benabid, Abdelmounaim Boutouil, Jamal
Harkass, Zakaria Fathi, Fahd Moufi, El Mehdi El Moubarik, Cassius
Mailula, Bart Meijers, Oussama Zemraoui, Ayoub Boucheta, Stephane
Aziz Ki, Selemani Mwalimu, Ismael Benktib, Hamza Hannouri,
Pedrinho, Yassine Bennani, Omar Aqzdaou, Rayane Mahtou, Guilherme
Ferreira, Omar Al Somah.
Head Coach: Mohamed Amine Benhachem
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta
Power Rankings are a global team ranking system.
They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football
teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is
the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the
world.
Ahead of kick-off, here are the Opta Power Rankings for both
sides.
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