Winners and losers as Man City's shock Club World Cup exit exposes scale of Pep Guardiola's rebuild despite Phil Foden and new signings impressing in the U.S.

In the words of chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak, Manchester City viewed the Club World Cup as "a very, very serious competition", and they were going there to win it. The team's ruthless performances in the group stage showed he meant it, too. But after an enthralling 120 minutes against Al-Hilal in the last 16, City are already heading back to Manchester, digesting a chastening and embarrassing elimination from the tournament.

Make no mistake about it, City crashing out in the first round of the knockout stage to a team from outside of Europe is a massive, massive shock and a huge disappointment. Khaldoon and his fellow executives will also be cursing their early elimination both in naked financial terms and for the damage it does to their reputation of being the best team on the planet.

The tournament was supposed to be a fresh start for City after a terrible 2024-25 season as they aimed to avenge their rare trophy-less campaign. However, they were given an important reminder that Pep Guardiola's rebuild is far from complete and that it will take more time and likely even more money spent in the transfer market to give the coach the team he wants to wrestle back the Premier League crown they surrendered to Liverpool last season.

Yet there are some silver linings from City's two-week stay in the United States, and while the wounds of their elimination will take some time to heal, they might well look back upon this tournament as the first step towards re-establishing their dominance of English football.

GOAL breaks down the winners & losers from Man City's showing at the Club World Cup...