Ilkay Gundogan insists he is happy to remain at Manchester City and has \u201cseveral years\u201d left at the highest level.<\/p>\n
The veteran German midfielder gave a reminder of his class with two goals \u2013 albeit with one involving a stroke of luck \u2013 as City thrashed Abu Dhabi side Al Ain 6-0 to reach the last 16 of the Club World Cup.<\/p>\n
It came amid reports linking the 34-year-old, who rejoined City last summer after a one-year spell at Barcelona, with a move to Galatasaray.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Afterwards Gundogan did not categorically dismiss suggestions he could leave, but made clear his belief that he feels he could still play an important role for Pep Guardiola\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
Asked if he thought he would be staying, Gundogan said: \u201cI think so, yes. I have a one-year contract and I\u2019m very happy here. I think everyone knows that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I am committed to the competition, and I\u2019m enjoying my football. I still believe that I have several years in me (of being able) to play on the highest level by taking good care of myself. I think I\u2019ve proven that.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlso in last season I didn\u2019t miss a game, so I\u2019m available. I\u2019m fit. I feel really good and I want to play on the highest level for much longer.\u201d<\/p>\n
City\u2019s emphatic victory under the roof at Atlanta\u2019s spectacular Mercedes-Benz Stadium ensured their place in the last 16, but it was not enough to take them above Juventus to the top of Group G.<\/p>\n
The two teams are level on points and goal difference, but the Italians have an edge on goals scored heading into Thursday\u2019s head to head in Orlando.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
City will now need to win the game to secure top spot and avoid a clash with the winners of Real Madrid\u2019s group in the second round.<\/p>\n
Gundogan said City will quickly need to put the frustration of not scoring a seventh goal aside.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cThat at least would have given us a chance to get two results instead of just one, so that would be a higher probability at the end.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut somehow it doesn\u2019t matter. We need a good performance against Juve to win the game. We always knew that and it\u2019s not going to change the way we approach it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gundogan opened the scoring for City when he lobbed Al Ain goalkeeper Khalid Eisa after eight minutes with what seemed like a cross.<\/p>\n
Teenager Claudio Echeverri doubled the lead from a free-kick and Erling Haaland added a penalty before the break.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Gundogan made it 4-0 on 73 minutes before late strikes from substitutes Oscar Bobb and Rayan Cherki.<\/p>\n
Josko Gvardiol hit the post and Phil Foden spurned a good chance late on, but Gundogan felt City were too sluggish early in the second half.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cIt\u2019s something that should have not happened. We definitely need to do better because on the highest level you should not allow yourself to be not that good for such a long time in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt felt quite long, to be honest, in terms of the standards that we have.\u201d<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ilkay Gundogan insists he is happy to remain at Manchester City and has \u201cseveral years\u201d left at the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207022,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,16,16849,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-207021","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-great-britain","11":"tag-manchester","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-uk-sports","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114731290679229910","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207021","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=207021"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207021\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207022"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207021"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207021"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207021"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}