Benfica v Auckland City: FIFA Club World Cup preview

After a 10-0 thrashing at the hands of Bayern Munich, Auckland City must dust themselves off and prepare to go again as they take on Benfica on Saturday in their second outing at the FIFA Club World Cup.

Jamal Musiala scored a hat-trick and Thomas Muller bagged himself a brace as Bayern cruised their way in Cincinnati to the biggest win in the history of the Club World Cup.

While the gulf in class in that game has raised some questions regarding the new 32-team format for this competition, Auckland City can’t afford to dwell on the defeat as they prepare to go again against Portuguese giants Benfica this weekend at Inter&Co Stadium in Orlando, Florida.

Benfica v Auckland FC betting preview

No fairy tale start for Auckland 

Outclassed in that opening game by Vincent Company’s Bayern, Auckland now know the standards they will have to reach to be competitive at this level.

Having just one shot compared to Bayern’s 31, the Navy Blues struggled to lay a glove on the Bavarian giants and now another significant challenge awaits in Orlando this weekend.

Benfica made a sloppy start to the Club World Cup, going two goals down to Boca Juniors inside the first 27 minutes of their game at the Hard Rock Stadium.

The Lisbon outfit responded just before the break and eventually scored an equaliser in the 84th minute to salvage a point against Boca Juniors.

Auckland will have studied that game in Miami Gardens closely as they look to cause a major upset this weekend, with the Navy Blues at 81.00 for the win in Orlando.

Benfica backlash on the cards

After an underwhelming first half in against Boca, Benfica head coach Bruno Lage might well have had some choice words for his players at the break.

Angel Di Maria’s goal just before the half-time whistle proved pivotal and fellow Argentine Nicolas Otamendi scored what proved to be the equaliser with time running out.

Lage will want a confidence-boosting performance against Auckland and Benfica are understandably the overwhelming favourites at 1.004 to claim the three points, while another draw for the Eagles is 51.00.

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Benfica v Auckland FC odds

Benfica - 1.004
Draw - 51.00
Auckland FC - 81.00

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.