Silva says Man City didn´t want ´more vacations´ after Club World Cup exit

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Bernado Silva has rejected the suggestion that Manchester City’s exit from the Club World Cup could be a blessing in disguise ahead of the domestic season.

City were dumped out of the competition on Monday following a 4-3 defeat to Al-Hilal, with Marcos Leonardo’s goal in extra time settling the seven-goal thriller.

Pep Guardiola’s side had stormed through their Group G fixtures, winning all three of those games, which included thrashings of Al Ain and Juventus.

But they came up short in the last 16 despite registering an expected goals (xG) total of 4.35 from their 30 shots, compared to Al-Hilal’s 3.16 from their 17 attempts.

The Citizens will now turn their attention to their domestic campaign, which begins against Wolves on August 16 in their first Premier League fixture of 2025-26.

Should City have reached the showpiece match, it would have given them just four weeks to prepare, though their early exit has given them extra time to recover.

Silva, however, suggested that none of his team wanted more time off.

“No one wanted to lose, no one wanted more vacations,” Silva said. “We are very used to not having holidays, unfortunately, because the schedule is crazy.

“But when we are in a competition we take it very seriously and we had a lot of ambition for this Club World Cup and we wanted to win it.”

Asked whether the feeling of going out was similar to exiting the Champions League, the 30-year-old said: “Yeah, a little bit, yeah.”

Silva added that he was unsure of how much time the squad would get off.

However, he insisted they would be ready to fight for the Premier League title after relinquishing their crown to Liverpool last season.

“We don’t know [the schedule] yet,” he said.

“We know when we start the Premier League, we will try to have as much rest as possible but also come back to prepare for the season properly.

“That’s not my job, that’s the manager and his staff’s job to prepare the players, two or three weeks, whatever. But we are going to prepare the season.”