Wherever Pep Guardiola is watching the World Cup on TV, he'll feel relatively relieved at how it has progressed so far.
Guardiola has spent the last few months warning of the season-defining effects of a mid-season World Cup on his Manchester City title challenge, encouraging a faster start to guarantee points on the board before the unknowns when the Premier League resumes.
Already, Guardiola has the benefit of knowing Erling Haaland, Riyad Mahrez and Stefan Ortega will be available for the Carabao Cup clash with Liverpool having had a six week break. With the World Cup group stages coming to a close, Guardiola will soon start to turn his attentions back to City, and he will be buoyed at how his players have got on in Qatar so far.
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If Guardiola was prioritising his concerns for the World Cup, he may have focussed on the two injury doubts heading into the tournament. Kyle Walker and Kalvin Phillips were rushed back after their respective surgeries to make the England squad, and while City would never stand in the way of a player going to a World Cup, they may also have preferred a more regular recovery.
So to have both Walker and Phillips sit out the first two England games will have eased any concerns, and it was encouraging to see the pair play against Wales and come through unscathed, while there have been no other injury concerns yet.
All of Guardiola's four centre-backs are regulars for their country, giving John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Nathan Ake, Ruben Dias and Manuel Akanji some high-level playing time with back-to-back games that they haven't had at City this season. The Blues will be playing three times a week for most weeks until the end of the season when they return, so having all four defenders performing at a high standard will keep the competition high and the options broad.
Even Rodri has been playing at centre-back, showing his versatility, with Ilkay Gundogan getting some useful starts for Germany. It's telling that Hansi Flick sees Gundogan as his go-to starter in midfield for experience, so maybe Guardiola could lean upon that when City face their difficult run in January, or potentially reach some finals later in the campaign.
Bernardo Silva has been full of running in the Portuguese midfield, with Joao Cancelo getting an extended run on his favoured right-hand side, and both can take that rhythm back to City when they return. Kevin De Bruyne has been at the centre of Belgium's struggles, after his controversial comments that his side are "too old". If Guardiola could choose any player to return home early from Qatar, it would probably be De Bruyne.
And going forward, Phil Foden made a statement for England against Wales, while Jack Grealish has continued his good form with a goal against Iran and two promising cameos. Julian Alvarez helped Argentina into the knockout stages with a fine goal of his own, and is another to take his City form into the World Cup.
While most of City's players are bound for the knockout stages, De Bruyne and Akanji are not guaranteed to stay in Qatar for much longer, while Ederson is firmly second choice for Brazil so he should be well-rested whenever he returns.
It only takes one game for an injury, or a moment to change a player's fortunes, however Guardiola will be ticking each day off noting that things in Qatar are going City's way so far.
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