Pep Guardiola praised Rodri’s long -awaited return and said that Man City’s performance against Juventus has shown how much he had missed.
City did the best performance of the Club World Cup, and one of their best performance for a while, while the Spanish midfielder has made his first departure since September of last year in his 5-2 victory to seal the Group G.
Rodri was at the heart of City’s game with and without the ball and even played longer than his manager did not expect, after getting out of the bench during their two previous games during the tournament in the United States.
“Sooner or later Rodri had to start,” said Guardiola. “I said:” Okay, 45 minutes “, but at halftime, he said he wanted five to 10 more minutes. The match was under control.
“During the last games, we have conceded a lot of transitions, but that did not happen this time. Everyone knows how important Rodri is. He is one of the best players in the world. When they are not in a team, they are missed.
“We are happy that he has played a good 60 minutes and I hope he can help us again that it has happened since his arrival.”
Rodri won the ball in the third of the middle more than any of his midfielder teammates and despite only an hour, finished the fourth third more final of the third passes of anyone in the side of the city.
Unsurprisingly, his teammates were also happy to bring him back among their range, notably Jeremie Doku, who marked the opening of City in their victory.
Asked about the impact of the midfielder, he said: “Rodri won the Ballon d’Or!
“Going back to the team, you can see the difference and how important it is. The first match starting against a big team, he showed his qualities and he had a lot of impact. I am happy for him.”
Phil Foden, Erling Haaland, Savinho and a goal from Pierre Kalulu finished Fantastic Five from City for having drawn a draw with Al Hilal.
Bernardo Silva was not among the scorers but had a strong message at the same time for Rodri – and the next City opponents – while they are trying to get their hands on a larger share of the prize pool of 774 million pounds sterling in the United States.
“I don’t have to talk a lot about Rodri, his career talks about himself. Everyone knows how important it is for us. We are happy that he comes back slowly to his best level, we know that it takes time with the injury he had.
“But you have seen here that he improves better and better, and even without being 100%, he helps the team a lot. His character also makes him a great player.
“We are very satisfied with what we did against a high -level team. It was our best performance during this tournament. I don’t know if it is a declaration victory, it’s only three points. We are happy to be here and qualify for the last 16.
“We are here to win, so we are one more step from this goal. It is now killing or being killed. We must be ready.”
