We have our Manchester City vs Wydad AC predictions as the two sides lock horns in the Club World Cup on Wednesday, 18 June.<\/p>\n
Best Bets for Manchester City vs Wydad AC<\/p>\n
All odds are courtesy of bet365, correct at the time of publishing and subject to change.<\/p>\n
Wydad in the firing line<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola\u2019s City rarely go a whole season without silverware. Torrid Premier League form saw them hand the title to Liverpool, and they also missed out on the Champions League. Although the Club World Cup may not have been a top priority previously, it now presents a valuable opportunity.<\/p>\n
With that in mind, and considering the financial bonuses, they\u2019ll be fired up for their meeting with Wydad. With Juventus in their group, the Cityzens will be eager to get off to a good start in search of top spot. Haaland, Omar Marmoush and new signing, Rayan Cherki, could have fun in Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
The Moroccans won\u2019t be easy opponents – this won\u2019t be a repeat of Bayern Munich\u2019s easy win over Auckland City, but City\u2019s attacking threat should be too much. There\u2019s no value in a win for Guardiola\u2019s side, so goals are probably the way to go. Plus, Mohamed Amine Benhachem\u2019s men haven\u2019t kept too many clean sheets recently.<\/p>\n
A strong City start<\/p>\n
No Premier League team scored more first-half goals than Manchester City over the course of 2024\/25. They got 41 in the opening 45 minutes of their league games, conceding 22 along the way. To narrow it down even further, the 15 minutes before the break are when they\u2019re at their most deadly.<\/p>\n
Wydad scored more first-half goals than second-half ones, too – although not by much. Their struggle came in the latter stages of matches, where conceding too many goals ultimately harmed their title chances. City will, however, aim to get their work done early so they can turn their focus to game two.<\/p>\n
Given the talented squad at Guardiola\u2019s disposal, you\u2019d expect him to start strong but then make some lineup changes. It\u2019d be no shock to see them come rushing out and put their opponents to the sword.<\/p>\n
Haaland\u2019s fine form<\/p>\n
It might not have been the best season from a club perspective, but Haaland still managed to get 31 goals for City in 2024\/25. He\u2019s also got eight in his last six for Norway, including two in two World Cup Qualifiers this month. Wydad\u2019s defence will have their hands full with him.<\/p>\n
The Norwegian will be confident about his chances of claiming the Golden Boot in the USA, and he could dominate during the group stage. He\u2019s by no means City\u2019s only threat, but he\u2019s the one who\u2019ll be at the front of the queue. A couple of goals is definitely a possibility for him.<\/p>\n
Our Analysis: Form of Both Teams<\/p>\n
City had a largely disappointing 2024\/25 season, but they\u2019ve already made some fantastic moves in the transfer market. They head to the Club World Cup having won nine of their last 12 in all competitions, and they have Erling Haaland back in form. As reigning champions, they\u2019ll be out to retain the trophy, and they have the quality to do so.<\/p>\n
Wydad have had a patchy run of form. They won their last three Botola Pro games but finished 16 points off winners, RS Berkane. A run of one win in eight not long back was a cause for concern, and friendly defeats to Sevilla and Porto certainly won\u2019t have helped matters. They\u2019ve only kept three clean sheets since the start of March.<\/p>\n
Probable Lineups for Manchester City vs Wydad AC<\/p>\n
Manchester City Expected Lineup:<\/strong> Ederson, Nunes, Dias, Gvardiol, Ait-Nouri, Reijnders, Rodri, Foden, Cherki, Marmoush, Haaland<\/p>\n Wydad AC Expected Lineup: <\/strong>Benabid, Moufi, Harkass, Boutouil, Boucheta, Zemraoui, Moubarik, Lorch, Mailula, Rayhi, Obeng<\/p>\n +<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We have our Manchester City vs Wydad AC predictions as the two sides lock horns in the Club…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,16665,4884,2465,886,79210,16,15,79209],"class_list":{"0":"post-194243","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-fifa-club-world-cup","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-city","14":"tag-manchester-city-vs-wydad-casablanca","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wydad-casablanca"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114704102078888258","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}