SL Benfica 6-0 Auckland City FC
SL Benfica goals: Angel Di Maria (45 pen, 90 pen), Vangelis Pavlidis (54), Renato Sanches (63), Leandro Barreiro (76, 79)
SL Benfica got their first win on the board in the FIFA Club World Cup 2025™ after a long half-time weather delay, as they eventually overwhelmed a tiring Auckland City.
For much of the first half, the Portuguese giants were frustrated by an inspired show from Nathan Garrow. The young Auckland City keeper made a succession of brilliant saves from Benfica’s stellar names, with the highlights outstanding stops from Pavlidis and Di Maria.
However, the Kiwis’ resistance was finally broken deep into first half injury time when Jerson Lagos tripped Gianluca Prestianni and Di Maria finally beat the keeper with a coolly converted spot kick.
After that thunderstorm-enforced delay, Auckland’s Haris Zeb forced a decent save from Benfica keeper Anatoliy Trubin who turned his shot around the post.
But Benfica turned it on after that and Pavlidis netted his 30th goal for Benfica this season with a lovely twist and cool finish in the 54th minute before a deflected Renato Sanches effort killed off any hopes for the New Zealanders. Leandro Barreiro poached a double within three minutes as Auckland tired, before Di Maria netted another penalty in injury time to make it six.
Benfica now face FC Bayern München in Charlotte on Tuesday, needing just a point to be sure of qualification. Auckland City, meanwhile, round off their campaign against Boca Juniors in Nashville.
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Quotes
“We played a good game. The first half was very hot, but we created enough opportunities to be winning by more than one goal. Having more than two hours during half-time allowed us to analyse the game in more detail and position the midfielders and centre-backs in a way that we weren’t doing, so they could be closer to the opponent and win the ball. We changed players to freshen up the team because it was a really difficult game. It was 6-0, we could have scored two more goals, but it’s the right result.
“We have to be ready for Bayern Munich next. We have to recover and then prepare the game in the best way possible. They are a very difficult opponent who defend very aggressively, with man-to-man marking all over the pitch. Our objective is to prepare the game to win.”
Bruno Lage, Benfica coach.
“It was a very intense game today. The first half was complicated, we only scored one goal, but we were confident. There was a long break of course, but the important thing is that we won, we played a good game, we were calm in possession of the ball. Bayern Munich are a very strong opponent in our final group game, we will have to rest well to recover our strength and go into the next game with full confidence in our ability.”
Leandro Barreiro, Benfica goalscorer.
Michelob Ultra Superior Player of the Match
Angel Di Maria (SL Benfica)
