Club World Cup: Benfica through as group winners after 1-0 win over Bayern Munich | OneFootball

Benfica 1-0 Bayern Munich

Benfica beat Bayern Munich for the first time in their history on Tuesday afternoon in North Carolina, to win Group C and book their place in the knockout stage of the FIFA Club World Cup.

An early goal by Andreas Schjelderup gave the Eagles their second straight victory in the competition and ensured they progressed with 7 points. They will meet either Chelsea or Tunisian giants Esperance in the last-16 round.

Benfica’s victory owed much to a lively start, with Angel Di Maria forcing an early save from Manuel Neuer with a snap-shot, before Schjelderup broke the deadlock on 13 minutes. Norweigian Fredrik Aursnes’ low cross from the right eventually found its way to countryman Schjelderup, who beat Neuer with a low finish for what proved to be the winner.

Benfica had to ride their luck in the second half in the blazing heat at the Bank of America Stadium, with goalkeeper Anatolii Trubin emerging as a key figure as he denied Leroy Sane, who had been put through on goal by Joshua Kimmich. On the hour mark Kimmich thought he had equalised for the Germans, but his crisp left-footed strike was ruled out due to Harry Kane being in an offside position when jumping over the ball.

At the other end, substitute Kerem Aktürkoğlu failed to beat Neuer with his first involvement, but before long Trubin was again the hero. The Ukrainian denied Aleksandar Pavlović from close-range, before once more rushing out to thwart Sane after the winger had again been played in behind the Portuguese defensive line, this time by Kane.

Already-qualified Bayern, who missed a last-gasp chance through Kane’s header, started with two Portuguese in their line-up. Self-confessed Benfica fan Raphaël Guerreiro started at left-back and played the full match, while João Palhinha was selected in midfield, but was replaced at half time by Kimmich.

Bruno Lage (Benfica manager):

"We came into this game as we said, with great confidence, the first half was very good, we had the best chances. Maybe Bayern deserved a goal in the game, but in the first half we deserved 2-0. We won more duels, in the air and on the pitch. We finished first, it's very good.

“It's time for people to believe more in the work we do. In the work of our president, sporting director and myself as a coach and my players. They said we had to beat Boca, win by a lot of goals against Auckland to come first and they forgot about this game. I never forgot. People have to believe more in the work we do. In the end we won with the support of these fans.

“From the start, no one believed we would beat Bayern. The talk was about playing a ‘final’ against Boca and beating Auckland by a lot, but there was never any talk of beating Bayern. When we lose, not everything is bad nor are we the worst. There has to be a balance in the analysis.”

Vincent Kompany (Bayern Munich manager):

"The first half was not good at all. The conditions prevented the game from flowing. In the second half, we created a lot of chances and missed a lot of one-on-ones. We made a lot of changes to prepare for the next round. The result is disappointing . We were aggressive and tired the opponent, but, to be honest, we missed big chances. We could have drawn or even won this game, but the fact that we lost doesn't change anything for the next round. The first phase of the tournament is over. Another phase will start and it will be a different story."