Benfica hammer Auckland City as Silva promises "We're going there to win against Bayern" [video] | OneFootball

Benfica 6-0 Auckland City

Benfica secured the highly-anticipated high score victory over New Zealand side Auckland City in the Club World Cup on Friday afternoon, scoring six times in Orlando.

Two penalties from Ángel Di María, goals by Vangelis Pavlidis and Renato Sanches, followed by a late brace via winger Leandro Barreiro, gave the Eagles a big scoreline which did not always look probable, while taking temporary top spot in Group C.

Having seen Bayern Munich race into a 6-0 half-time lead against the Kiwis on Sunday, Benfica were aware they would be expected to give their fans something to shout about at the Inter&Co Stadium, which was pitifully occupied by less than 7,000 spectators.

As first half stoppage time progressed, the scoreline was still goalless. Frustratingly for Auckland, the deadlock was broken by a rash mistake. Defender Haris Zeb chopped down Gianluca Prestianni just inside the area, leaving the referee with an easy call in pointing to the spot. Di Maria stepped up and calmly put Benfica ahead.

Bruno Lage’s side emerged from the break – a long break reaching two hours due to weather conditions - with a clear desire to add to the scoreline, and Pavlidis and Sanches registered to make it 3-0 by the 63rd minute. Lage, fully aware that simply winning the game was not enough, appeared to encourage more after each goal was scored.

Luxembourg international Leandro Barreiro then took centre stage, scoring twice in the space of two minutes (76’ and 78’) to add more credibility to the scoreline. All that was left was for veteran Di Maria to add his second, which came in the same way the scoring had opened via a penalty, following another untidy challenge by Nikko Boxall which had brough the Argentine down.

With the win, Benfica move onto four points and lead the group, ahead of Bayern Munich and Boca Juniors meeting later. Having navigated the procession of victory over Aukland, focus now switches to Benfica’s crunch meeting with Bayern next Tuesday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Bruno Lage (Benfica manager):

“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 between 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.

“The dynamic was always to make the best decisions, we changed players to freshen up the team because it was a really difficult game. We tried with crosses from inside and outside, shots from outside the area, combinations... When we look back at the 90 minutes, we did it. It was 6-0, we could have scored two more goals, but it's the right result.

" Kokçu angry at being subbed? It was the desire to win. Kokçu stayed on the bench until the end. He wanted to score more goals and we understood that, to do that, Renato Sanches would have to come on, who scored the goal two minutes later. Regardless of what the players want, I'm the one who makes the decisions. In the first game, I felt that Renato had to start and Kokçu came on to freshen things up. Today I decided the opposite and Renato scored the goal. Everyone wanted to score more goals and we made the best decisions to make that happen. The player's behaviour is always very professional on and off the pitch. He has a past with another coach and a present with me. It was an isolated incident. It was the desire to score more.

“Bayern? We have to be ready. We have to recover and then prepare the game in the best way possible. They are a very difficult opponent and that will be the challenge. Bayern defend very aggressively, with man-to-man marking all over the pitch. We have to prepare ourselves to understand what kind of space we will have. It is a new competition and our objective is to prepare the game to win."

Leandro Barreiro (Benfica)

"I'm not very good at post-game analysis, I'm tired, it was a very intense game today. The first half was complicated, we only scored one goal, but we were confident.

“A the break at half-time, with this heat... I'm not ready to make any analyses now. The important thing is that we won, we played a good game, we were calm in possession of the ball."

António Silva (Benfica)

"We knew we had to score some goals. I think we started out too eager to score lots of goals and that hurt us in the first half. Then we had a long break which wasn't good because it broke the rhythm of the game, but above all, we managed to prepare for the second half and score more goals.

“Will the team watch Bayern's game? We're going to the hotel now and we usually watch all the games and since it's a club in our group, of course we're going to watch it.

“Of course. We're Benfica and we're going there to win the game."

Angel Di Maria (Benfica)

"The important thing was to win this match, the award [for Player of the Match] is a beautiful thing, but the most important thing is the team, the group and winning the games. I said after the game against Boca Juniors that we had two important games, this one and the next one against Bayern, and we have to try to get the six points and go through to the round of 16, which is the objective we came here to achieve."