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 CityRúben 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 ACYoussef 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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Man City vs Wydad AC Prediction: 2025 FIFA Club World Cup Preview Opta Analyst.
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