Pep Guardiola tactical change put Man City on course for their own world title

Saudi Arabia will fitness two world title fights this weekend. In Riyadh, the country's grip on the boxing world will continue with a show-stopping card of heavyweight contests on Saturday night. 24 hours earlier, in Jeddah, the champions of the football world will be crowned. In the blue corner, Manchester City.

This is a club that hasn't always fallen into the heavyweight bracket. In fact, for a long time it did its best to steer clear of it. They might still be catching the behemoths of Barcelona and Real Madrid, and maybe even Manchester United, on the global stage, but the balance of power is shifting. The stars are on show here and you only had to listen to the sound that greeted a glimpse of Erling Haaland during a slow-burn of a win against Urawa Red Diamonds for evidence of that.

Haaland was sat in the stands but the A-list names on the pitch did the job against the J League side and Asian champions, exerting a stranglehold on the game throughout and cruising to a 3-0 win that was a semi-final in name only. It booked a place in Friday's final back at the King Abdullah Sport City Stadium.

ALSO READ: City dealt Haaland blow in Club World Cup

ALSO READ: City vs Urawa Red Diamonds as it happened

Perhaps fittingly for a club that has tasted the extremes, City's ascension to the world stage came 25 years to the day since they hit rock bottom. A 2-1 defeat at York's ramshackle Bootham Crescent on December 19, 1998, left them 12th in the third tier. It's the lowest point, by league position, of this club's history. It's been quite a journey since. Not many fans from Manchester had the time, finance or inclination to travel to Saudi Arabia a week before Christmas, but some of the die-hards might have ticked off York