Benfica beat Bayern Munich as both progress to Club World Cup knockouts

Benfica's players celebrate scoring the opening goal

Benfica ended a 13-match winless H2H run against Bayern Munich by beating the German champions 1-0 in North Carolina, joining them in the knockout stages of the FIFA Club World Cup (CWC) as group winners while inflicting Die Roten’s first-ever defeat in the competition.

With Bayern’s passage to the last 16 already secure, Vincent Kompany made eight changes to his starting XI for this one.

A sluggish start suggested their place at the top of Group C was under threat as Benfica pushed forward, forcing Manuel Neuer into action inside 10 minutes to deny fellow veteran 1ngel Di MarDa.0

The Bayern captain was helpless to stop the Eagles’ next chance, however, as he was well beaten by Andreas Schjelderup’s cool finish from Fredrik Aursnes’ cutback.

Bayern’s response was muted to say the least, and they consequently headed down the tunnel without registering a single shot on target in the first half.

Harry Kane, Joshua Kimmich and Michael Olise were introduced following the restart, and the Frenchman wasted no time in making his presence known as he drew a foul that saw Nicol1s Otamendi booked.0

Opposite winger Leroy San9 then had Der Rekordmeister’s best opening of a breakthrough after being played in behind in brilliant fashion by Kimmich, but Anatoliy Trubin made a tremendous save before also denying Thomas MFCller’s follow-up.0

Momentum

At the other end, Benfica substitute Kerem AktFCrkoğlu was denied by Neuer, moments before Bayern finally had the ball in the back of the net.

Kimmich’s low drive from the edge of the box arrowed into the bottom corner, but the goal was ruled out as Kane was adjudged to have been in the goalkeeper’s eyeline from an offside position.0

The Benfica goal was starting to live a charmed life as Trubin was again called into action to deny Aleksandar Pavlović from close range.

Match stats

The Ukrainian goalkeeper was the resounding winner of his personal battle with San9, denying the German international again after Kane slotted him through in the closing stages.

Trubin’s heroics helped Benfica to a 16th successive match unbeaten and passage to the last 16, where they look likely to face Chelsea.

Bayern, meanwhile, will face Flamengo after their five-match winning streak came to an abrupt end.

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