Auckland City defender Adam Bell believes the underdogs have learnt from their overwhelming defeat to Bayern Munich. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / Phototek.nz
Auckland City were on the wrong end of the biggest scoreline in FIFA Club World Cup history in their opening game of the tournament in the USA and are determined to show they are better than that against Benfica on Saturday morning.
Defender Adam Bell said Auckland City were hit hard by the gulf between a side that had won in Europe and their own diet of domestic New Zealand competitions.
"Going from playing domestically straight to one of the best teams, I think, in the world is obviously a big jump for anyone," Bell said of the 10-0 defeat to Bayern Munich.
"Some things didn't go to plan as we wished. I think we would have liked a better scoreline than was shown, but I think we can't fault that we tried our best and gave it our all."
- Saturday, 21 June - Auckland City FC v SL Benfica at Inter&Co Stadium, Orlando, Florida 4am NZT.
Auckland City have been at the Club World Cup 11 times before and this is Bell's fourth time.
"I do think that the level of Bayern Munich is definitely a drastic improvement from the teams we've played previously," he said. "They're obviously a much larger scale and being able to go through that benefits us heavily for the next games to come."
Bell did not take the field against the German side, but said support from friends and family back at home had been welcome.
"It's never easy coming from a hard loss, but the support in general has just been real positive and real proud.
"I think we all have a good shot at proving ourselves to the world.
"Benfica is a quite established side with big history, so we've got our tweaks that we think we need to adjust and, once again, we will just try to put our best performance on and bounce back."
Form
Bayern Munich's French defender Sacha Boey fights for the ball with Auckland City's New Zealander midfielder Dylan Manickum during the Club World Cup 2025. Photo: FEDERICO PARRA / AFP
Two winless teams from Group C clash, after Benfica drew with Argentinians Boca Juniors 2-2 in their opening game.
Benfica had Andrea Bellotti red-carded in that game, as they came back from a two-goal deficit to level the score.
Before arriving in the USA, the Lisbon club won the Portuguese League Cup for the eighth time and finished second in the premier competition.
Auckland City's first team were in winning form at home in the Northern League and Chatham Cup, and after heading stateside, won their first warm-up game against Philadelphia Union 2.
City narrowly lost their second warm-up game against fellow Club World Cup side UAE giants Al Ain FC.
The loss to Bayern Munich called into question Auckland's involvement in the expanded 32-team tournament as the only amateur side.
"We go into these games understanding that we're the underdog, but I think one of the main things we can take away is that we've been through the first game now and we understand the level," Bell said. "I think we can learn from from that first game and take it into the next, and hopefully turn into a positive."
Where they are playing
Inter&Co Stadium is a 25,000-seat football (soccer-specific) stadium in downtown Orlando.
The privately funded stadium, which cost $US155 million, opened in 2017 and has a four-sided canopy roof.
The stadium is home to Major League Soccer side Orlando City and Orlando Pride of the National Women's Soccer League.
Auckland City against Benfica will be the last of two Club World Cup games hosted at the stadium.
Squads
SL Benfica players Photo: VALTER GOUVEIA
Auckland City: Conor Tracey, Areya Prasad, Nathan Garrow, Adam Mitchell, Christian Gray, Nikko Boxall, Regont Murati, Nathan Lobo, Jordan Vale, Dylan Connolly, Adam Bell, Zhou Tong, Alfie Rogers, Michael den Heijer, Ryan Ellis, Mario Ilich (captain), Gerard Garriga, Jeremy Foo, Matt Ellis, David Yoo, Kentaro Ozaki, Jackson Manuel, Paris Domfeh, Kailan Gould, Myer Bevan, Angus Kilkolly, Dylan Manickum, Ryan De Vries, Joseph Lee, Jerson Lagos, Haris Zeb.
Benfica: Antonily Trubin, Diogo Ferreira, Andre Gomes, Alvaro Carreras, Antonio Silva, Samuel Dahl, Nicolas Otamendi, Rui Silva, Goncalo Oliveira, Joshua Wynder, Leandro Santos, Adrian Bajrami, Fredrik Aursnes, Orkun Kokcu, Leandro Barreiro, Florentino Luis, Joao Veloso, Rafael Luis, Joao Rego, Renato Sanches, Diogo Prioste, Angel di Maria, Vangelis Pavlidis, Kerem Akturkoglu, Andrea Belotti, Andreas Schjelderup, Gianluca Prestianni, Bruma, Tiago Gouveia, Eduardo Fernandes.
