Wydad Casablanca opened their FIFA Club World Cup campaign with a 2-0 loss to Manchester City in Philadelphia on Wednesday evening.
FIFA Club World Cup
Result: Manchester City 2-0 Wydad Casablanca
Date: 18 June 2025
Venue: Etihad Stadium
South African duo Thembinkosi Lorch and Cassius Mailula were named in the Wydad starting line-up, while the Cityzens handed debuts to new signings Rayan Cherki and Tijjani Reijnders.
The Premier League outfit got off to the perfect start when Phil Foden opened the scoring after just two minutes with a powerful volley from close range after goalkeeper El Mehdi Benabid could only parry Savinho's cross back into danger.
The Moroccan giants nearly pulled themselves level on 10 minutes when a cross was floated towards Lorch in the box, however the South African forward failed to connect with only Ederson to beat, while he also tried to catch out the City goalkeeper from inside his own half a few minutes later.
Lorch was an influential figure for Wydad throughout the first half as he carved out an opening on 31 minutes by skipping past one City defender before laying the ball off for Mailula, who was denied by Ederson in the box.
However, Wydad were made to rue those missed opportunities as City doubled their lead on the stroke of halftime as Jeremy Doku got ahead of his marker in the box and volleyed home directly from a corner.
While Wydad struggled to carve out chances in the second half, Pep Guardiola made three changes on the hour mark as Erling Haaland, Rodri and Oscar Bobb replaced Foden, Cherki and Doku for the rest of the contest.
Despite the flurry of changes, the Premier League outfit were unable to find a third goal in the contest but they were reduced to ten men with three minutes left when Rico Lewis was shown a straight red card for a dangerous challenge on Samuel Obeng.
Wydad will be back in action on Sunday evening against Juventus.
