Trader's Insight: FIFA Club World Cup 2025 Group G Preview & Tips

With there being a lot of unknowns regarding the 2025 Club World Cup, one of Ladbrokes' senior traders shares some valuable insights with our Group G preview.

A very disappointing season for Man City who have finished empty handed for the first time since 2016/17. There were obvious excuses for their poor performance this season with the absence of Rodri and injuries to key players like Haaland and De Bruyne but Pep Guardiola’s squad is undoubtedly in a state of flux and they will look upon this competition as a chance to regroup, prepare for next season and hopefully pick up some silverware.

Fans will be pleased to see the talismanic Rodri back in the squad and will be excited to see Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Cherki who have signed from AC Milan and Lyon respectively. The main goalscorer will be Haaland, ably backed up by Omar Marmoush who has hit the ground running since his mid-season move from Eintracht Frankfurt.

With the departure of De Bruyne and omission of James McAtee I would suspect that Cherki will be thrown straight into the side to provide the ammunition. Josko Gvardiol and Nico O’Reilly are both massive goalscoring threats whichever of them starts at left back and this is worth keeping an eye on here. Man City look well placed to dominate this group and I’d expect them to win fairly comfortably.

Another disappointing season for Juve who definitely look like a team on the downturn of their cycle. The reign of Thiago Motta ended abruptly in March and Igor Tudor has returned to the club where he made his name as a player.

Early signs have been steady rather than spectacular and he will be hoping for further improvement here to give him some leeway with the fans as they head into next season. Randal Kolo Muani has been favoured over Dusan Vlahovic in the main and Tudor will have been boosted by his loan extension that makes him available here. Francisco Conceicao has also extended his loan and should start as part of a three in behind Muani with Nicolas Gonzalez and Kenan Yildiz either side.

In defence, Renato Veiga who was arguably the best player in the team has returned to Chelsea which will be a bit of a blow. Set piece threats include 6 foot 4 inch centre back Federico Gatti and Bremer who has been included in the squad after missing most of the season with an ACL injury. It is not a particularly strong group and you would expect Juventus to progress but I suspect they will make it difficult for themselves and can see them slipping up against either of these minnows.

Al Ain qualified for the Club World Cup by winning the AFC Champions League in 2023/24. That result was a fairly big surprise by itself but the team has undoubtedly declined since that success and they look like they will be outclassed here. They could only finish fifth in the UAE Pro League this season and didn’t win a game in the AFC Champions League Elite West Region on their way to a rock bottom finish.

37 year old Rui Patricio has just signed a short-term deal specifically for the Club World Cup and they have the prolific Togolese striker Kodjo Fo-Doh Laba up front but it is difficult to see them achieving much here and I fear they will be looking at another rock bottom finish. The fact they easily beat Auckland City 6-2 in the African-Asian Pacific Cup first round says more about Auckland City’s uphill task than it does about Al Ain’s ability and they look like the worst team in the group to me.

On the plus side, they scored 51 goals in 26 games in their domestic league whilst conceding 35 and scored 11 and conceded 22 in their 8 AFC Champions League matches so their games should be entertaining if nothing else and will be worth checking the goal lines and higher correct scores in their matches.

Similarly to Al Ain, Wydad Casablanca qualified for the tournament via their 2022 CAF Champions League win but have seen something of a decline since then. They have turned over 10 (TEN!) different managers since then and haven’t picked up any silverware since. However, I believe there are very cautious reasons for optimism which is why I prefer them slightly to the Jordanian representatives.

Sporting Director Mohamed Amine Benhachem took over from Rhulani Mokwena after 6 consecutive draws in their run in and guided them to 3 wins in their last 3 games to ensure qualification to the CAF Confederations Cup. They have also had a month to prepare themselves since their domestic league finished and have played a couple of warm up matches in Casablanca ahead of the tournament.

They also look to have a sturdy defence, built on the presence of Jamal Harkass at centre back who looks a genuinely quality player. They will look to him to lead the team as captain but Mohamed Rayhi is the man they will look towards for goals. The former Eredivisie man has been fairly prolific wherever he has played and has 11 in 28 in the league this season.

It looks relatively straightforward for both Man City and Juventus here. I would expect Man City to top the group with Juventus in second but Wydad should give them more problems than Al Ain who I expect to finish bottom of the group.

• Wednesday, June 18 - Man City vs Wydad AC (17:00 BST)

• Thursday, June 19 - Al Ain vs Juventus (02:00 BST)

• Sunday, June 22 - Juventus vs Wydad AC (17:00 BST)

• Monday, June 23 - Man City vs Al Ain (02:00 BST)

• Thursday, June 26 - Juventus vs Man City (20:00 BST)

• Thursday, June 26 - Wydad AC vs Al Ain (20:00 BST)

Ladbrokes has an article looking at the group stage games to watch at the Club World Cup. As well as that, we've also posted an extensive Club World Cup schedule guide, for fans who don't miss out on a single minute of action in America.

As noted, there are a lot of questions surrounding this summer's tournaments, some fans still wondering why Liverpool aren't in the tournament but Chelsea are, for example.

So, Ladbrokes has an 'Answering all your questions on the Club World Cup 2025' piece for fans who still don't feel they know all they need to about the revamped FIFA competition.

So, now you have all the information to ensure you don't miss a single match at this year's Club World Cup - and with our detailed tournament preview and betting guide, you won't miss a tip either.

View the latest Club World Cup odds.

All odds and markets are correct as of the date of publication.