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<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\nPep Guardiola reiterated Phil Foden\u2019s importance to Manchester City after the playmaker\u2019s role in Wednesday\u2019s 2-0 win over Wydad AC at the Club World Cup.<\/p>\n
Foden scored City\u2019s early opener before setting up Jeremy Doku with an inch-perfect corner late in the first half.<\/p>\n
It was the first time the England international has scored since January, with the 25-year-old having endured a difficult 2024-25 season.<\/p>\n
Foden finished the game in Philadelphia with a team-leading four shots, three of which were on target, while he also created two chances.<\/p>\n
And Guardiola stressed how important Foden, who started centrally alongside new signings Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders, still is to his plans.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe will be important. Of course, he will be,\u201d Guardiola told DAZN.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another role, we have a lot of number 10s, we have to adjust many things, but it will be step by step.\u201d<\/p>\n
City\u2019s win was marred by a late red card for Rico Lewis, who was sent off for catching Samuel Obeng with a boot to the face, despite winning the ball with a sliding challenge that both players went into.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe touches the ball,\u201d said a frustrated Guardiola.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe never had any intention to do it. The referee said his foot was high but it was in the grass, it\u2019s a natural way.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter, it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
City were hardly free-flowing in the heat at Lincoln Financial Field, though Guardiola was nevertheless satisfied with what he saw.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cThat\u2019s why the first game is always a tricky one. We did really well. This is the first step, we will learn from here and the second one will be better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe season is too long, but it is important to be here. It\u2019s a lot of humidity, it\u2019s very hot, for the players to be playing in these conditions. We have to understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardiola won the previous format of the Club World Cup on four occasions, the joint-most for a manager alongside Carlo Ancelotti.<\/p>\n
He lifted the trophy with three different clubs, also a record: with Barcelona in 2009 and 2011, with Bayern Munich in 2013 and with Man City in 2023. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a>SoccerNews<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Soccer Pep Guardiola reiterated Phil Foden\u2019s importance to Manchester City after the playmaker\u2019s role in Wednesday\u2019s 2-0 win over Wydad AC at the Club World Cup. Foden scored City\u2019s early opener before setting up Jeremy Doku with an inch-perfect corner late in the first half. It was the first time the England international has scored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":856622,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99596,30510,2005],"tags":[99593,6699],"class_list":{"0":"post-856621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-foden","8":"category-guardiola","9":"category-soccer","10":"tag-foden","11":"tag-guardiola"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=856621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}