Forever Blue With Toby Camplin: First Set of City Stars Progress To World Cup Knockouts

If you missed last week's Forever Blue column, you won’t know that the man who usually provides your weekly City news, Ian Cheeseman, has taken a well-earned break.

Therefore, I’m filling in for a few weeks. For those who didn’t get a chance to read last week’s column, my name is Toby Camplin, I’m a university student and budding journalist with a passion for Manchester City. I go to as many games as possible, home and away. 

Before diving into the World Cup action over the past week, the big talking point for City fans is our manager, Pep Guardiola, signing a new contract that keeps him at the club until 2025. Pep’s contract was due to expire at the end of the season, and even though a lot of fans, including myself, were confident that the Spaniard would sign again, it was a fantastic piece of news to wake up to. 

The FA Cup third round draw took place on Monday evening with City, amongst all the other Premier League teams, in the pot. It felt like deja vu when the blues were drawn against Chelsea for a second time this season, matching August’s third round Carabao Cup draw. The draw also means we will have to play Chelsea two times in a week, with the fixture taking place on the weekend of January 7, 2023.

Moving onto the latest World Cup action, starting with our national team, England. The Three Lions secured their qualification for the knockouts on Tuesday night, with an impressive 3-0 victory over Wales. The result also meant a top of the group finish, meaning England will play Senegal in the round of 16 on Sunday. Two Manchester born players made the difference, Man City’s Phil Foden and Man United’s Marcus Rashford scoring the three goals between them. City centre back John Stones started all three group games, keeping clean sheets against the USA and Wales. Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips both made their first appearances of the World Cup in the final game, potentially setting them both up for more game time in the knockouts.

The Netherlands also secured their place in the knockouts on Tuesday evening with a 2-0 win over tournament hosts, Qatar, setting up a round of 16 tie against Group B runners up, the USA. Blues centre back, Nathan Ake, started all three games for his country, only conceding one goal across the entire group stage.

As I write this, Argentina, Spain, Germany and Belgium, countries that hold five City players between them, are yet to secure their place in the next stage of the tournament going into their respective third and final games. 

A country that holds a number of City players, Portugal, have already secured their place in the knockouts having only played two of their three games. This means that they’re fighting for the top spot of Group H in their final game, only needing a point. 

Another busy week of World Cup football lays ahead of us, I’d like to wish all our blues the best of luck in their remaining group games and first knockout games!