Manchester City’s FIFA Club World Cup last-16 opponents confirmed after Real Madrid result

Pep Guardiola and Manchester City’s opponents for the last-16 of the ongoing FIFA Club World Cup have now been confirmed following the final Group H matches.

It has been the perfect route to the knockout rounds of the expanded and rebranded version of the global cup competition for Manchester City, establishing themselves as the only side to have won all three of their group stage matches.

The tournament got off to a relatively strong start despite some complications across the 90 minutes on matchday one, as goals from Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku dismissed of Wydad AC in Philadelphia.

Victory over the Moroccan side was then followed up by a rout over the UAE’s Al Ain, with Manchester City scoring six goals without reply from their opponents to set up a final matchday meeting with Juventus – knowing that only a win would secure top spot.

And that is exactly what Manchester City would do in fine fashion, putting five goals past Michele Di Gregorio and Juventus to ultimately claim all three points and win 2-5 on a humid evening’s work in Orlando, Florida.

That outing has put Pep Guardiola and his squad on the left side of the tournament bracket, avoiding the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, and Real Madrid.

Now, following the conclusion of Group H in the early hours of Friday morning, Manchester City have found out that they will take on Al-Hilal in the last-16 of the FIFA Club World Cup.

The meeting between the two sides as the competition enters the knockout phase will take place on Monday 30 June at 21:00 EDT / Tuesday 1 July at 02:00 BST at the Camping World Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Confirmation of the fixture also finalises the pathway for Manchester City through to the Final of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, with it also understood that a quarter-final tie would be against either Inter or Fluminense.

Should Pep Guardiola’s players progress beyond the last-eight and into the semi-finals, they would take on either Palmeiras or Botafogo, Benfica or Chelsea – with those two pairings due to be played out at the last-16 stage and into the quarter-finals.