Yildiz stars as Juventus beat Wydad at Club World Cup

PHILADELPHIA: 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.

Moroccan giants Wydad, meanwhile, 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