Philadelphia (AFP) – Kenan Yildiz scored two goals and had a hand in another as Juventus beat Wydad Casablanca 4-1 at the Club World Cup on Sunday to close in on a place in the last 16. The Turkish international forward was unlucky not to be credited with Juve’s early opener, which went down as an own goal by Abdelmounaim Boutouil. However, there was no doubt that Yildiz was the scorer of the second with a tremendous strike from outside the box.
Thembinkosi Lorch pulled one back for Wydad before the break, but Yildiz got his second of the afternoon on 69 minutes before a late Dusan Vlahovic penalty sealed the victory for the Italian side. Having already defeated Emirati side Al Ain 5-0 in their opening match, Juve have scored nine goals and have the maximum six points after two outings in Group G. Their qualification for the knockout phase will be assured if group rivals Manchester City avoid defeat against Al Ain later. That puts Igor Tudor’s Juve in an excellent position with a final group game to come on Thursday against City in Orlando.
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“I’m happy. It was not easy. It was hot, but it was a good win. At the end, our quality came out,” Tudor told broadcaster DAZN, before hailing the performance of Yildiz. “He has great potential. He has a lot of skills, but more important than skills is his brain; that is the key. A wonderful player, so there is a big future in front of him.”
Meanwhile, Moroccan giants Wydad are eliminated with this defeat following a 2-0 loss at the hands of City in their first outing. Yildiz, the 20-year-old German-born winger, was among the scorers against Al Ain and he was the star of the show here in front of 31,975 fans at Lincoln Financial Field. Juve, who finished fourth in Serie A in the campaign just finished, went with an unchanged starting line-up, meaning the likes of Vlahovic and Manuel Locatelli began the game on the bench.
Prolific against Al Ain, they wasted no time in putting the team that finished third in the Moroccan league to the sword. The opening goal came on six minutes as Khephren Thuram teed up Yildiz, and his shot beat goalkeeper El Mehdi Benabid with the aid of a slight deflection off Boutouil. It was 2-0 on 16 minutes via a superb effort, as Andrea Cambiaso went on a piercing run in from the left before laying the ball off for Yildiz to smash in a shot on the half-volley into the top corner.
Wydad quickly pulled one back as veteran Nordin Amrabat’s fine pass in behind the defence released South African winger Lorch to control and clip a shot past the goalkeeper. Yet Juventus were well on top, and Cambiaso hit the post just prior to the hour mark before Randal Kolo Muani somehow failed to turn in Lloyd Kelly’s ball across the face of goal. Their third goal did arrive just after the midway point in the second half when France forward Kolo Muani collected possession on the left and then slipped in Yildiz, who finished into the corner. It was his third goal at the tournament so far, and his 12th in all competitions since the season began. Yildiz had been withdrawn before the fourth goal arrived in stoppage time, with substitute Vlahovic stroking in a spot-kick awarded after he had been hauled down by Guilherme Ferreira.
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