Orlando (United States) (AFP) – Benfica sailed to a 6-0 win to eliminate Auckland City from the Club World Cup on Friday in Orlando in a match which suffered a long weather delay, with Angel Di Maria netting two penalties. With the Portuguese side leading by a goal at half-time, the match was suspended because of a storm, eventually resuming two hours later.
“This is the longest game of my career, a special thanks to our fans, who have been here for five hours supporting the team,” said Benfica coach Bruno Lage. “We played as well as we could. The (hot) temperature made it very difficult.”
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Auckland of New Zealand, the only Oceania Football Confederation representatives at the tournament, were thrashed 10-0 by Bayern Munich in their Group C opener, and this defeat sealed their fate. Despite their eventual collapse, Auckland battled hard in the first half and almost made it to the break unscathed. Auckland goalkeeper Nathan Garrow made several good saves to keep Benfica at bay, and the Portuguese side grew frustrated.
Benfica took the lead deep into first-half stoppage time when Gianluca Prestianni was clumsily felled in the area by Haris Zeb. Di Maria, who converted a spot-kick in the opening 2-2 draw against Boca Juniors, sent Garrow the wrong way. At half-time, the match became the fourth in the last four days at the tournament to be impacted by a suspension for adverse conditions, with a storm arriving at the Inter & Co Stadium.
When play eventually resumed, Benfica came back out strongly. Vangelis Pavlidis bundled his way through and smashed home to double Bruno Lage’s team’s lead in the 53rd minute, with Renato Sanches netting the third 10 minutes later from outside the box with a deflected effort. Luxembourg midfielder Leandro Barreiro bagged a brace to expand Benfica’s lead, tucking home at the back post from Pavlidis’ cross for the fourth before netting from close range.
Nikko Boxall brought down Di Maria in stoppage time, and the Argentine World Cup winner beat Garrow from the spot again to wrap up Benfica’s emphatic triumph. It was his third goal of the competition, bringing him level with Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala as the top scorers.
Later Friday, German giants Bayern take on Argentine outfit Boca Juniors in the other Group C match. Auckland coach Paul Posa, back on the bench after minor surgery stopped him from joining up earlier with the team, said despite elimination his side would try their hardest in the final match against Boca on Tuesday in Nashville.
“We will give it our absolute best shot, 100 percent guarantee that,” he explained. “We don’t get these opportunities; it’s very rare for us to play teams of this quality. It has just about never happened and may be a long time before it happens again. So we won’t lie down and do Boca any favours.”
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