Benfica vs Bayern Munich live updates: Club World Cup 2025 predictions, team news, latest score – The New York Times

FIFA Club World Cup
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Bayern Munich and Benfica conclude their 2025 Club World Cup group-stage campaigns at Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte today.
The German champions have already booked their last-16 spot and Benfica are well placed to follow them, but far from guaranteed. They need a point today to make absolutely sure of a knockout place.
At the same time, third-placed Boca Juniors need a big victory against Auckland City to stand any chance of progression.
You can sign up to DAZN to watch every FIFA Club World Cup game for free.
Bayern are qualified for the next round already, but Joao Palhinha could still really use a good game.
With Bischof arriving, there is one less space in midfield, and Palhinha has not done well since arriving from Fulham.
With everyone fit, he might even be fifth-choice and it would not be such a surprise if he left the club this summer.
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Wish someone would describe my left foot as educated, as Seb Stafford-Bloor just did there about Bayern midfielder Tom Bischof.
My swinger has long struggled with the education system.
Opted out of academia pre-nursery.
Tom Bischof starts for Bayern Munich in midfield tonight.
He will be unfamiliar to many, but he’s a big prospect in German football and arrived from TSG Hoffenheim on a free transfer this summer, following his contract’s expiry.
Bischof is fun. He’s quite combative without the ball, and likes a tackle, but he’s creative with it and has a really educated left foot.
He’s already been capped at national team level, too.
Benfica substitutes: Ferreira (GK); Santos, Bajrami, Oliveira, Wynder, Luis, Kokcu, Veloso, Rego, Akturkoglu, Bruma, Gouveia.
While Benfica line up as follows.
Benfica (4-2-3-1): Trubin; Aursnes, Silva, Otamendi, Dahl; Barreiro, Sanches; Di Maria, Prestianni, Schjelderup; Pavlidis.
Let's take a look.
Bayern substitutes: Peretz (GK), Urbig (GK); Tah, Aznou, Kiala, Laimer, Kimmich, Goretzka, Karl, Santos, Musiala, Coman, Olise, Kane, Kusi-Asare.
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Here is how Bayern Munich line up today:
Bayern Munich (4-3-3): Neuer; Boey, Stanisic, Upamecano, Guerreiro; Pavlovic, Palhinha, Bischof; Sane, Muller, Gnabry.
Not long to go now until we will know how both teams are shaping up for today's match.
Will either Vincent Kompany or Bruno Lage throw in some surprise picks?
Stay tuned and we'll bring you the teams when they land in around ten minutes' time.
After that lengthy weather delay last time Benfica were in action at the Club World Cup, it seems the issue is not going to be going away any time soon ahead of next summer's FIFA World Cup in the USA.
Fans and spectators from around the world are learning just how chaotic summer weather can be in the United States.
It has become a major focal point of the tournament, with four matches in four days last week experiencing weather-related delays that have at times suspended play for as long as two hours.
Severe weather, such as extreme heat in Los Angeles or sudden thunderstorms in Orlando, is par for the course for Americans during the summer months of June and July and will likely mirror what we’ll see at the men’s World Cup in 2026.
GO FURTHER
Expect Club World Cup delays to repeat next summer, says weather chief
Benfica recorded their first win of the Club World Cup on Friday, beating Auckland City 6-0 in Orlando. But it wasn’t an entirely comfortable ride for the Portuguese side.
Auckland, who were beaten 10-0 by Bayern Munich in their first game of the tournament, were much improved on their second outing, frustrating Benfica.
After firing 18 shots at the Auckland goal without success, an increasingly-frustrated Benfica finally found a route to goal from the penalty spot in first-half added time.
The second-half restart was delayed by more than two hours due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, killing any opportunity for Benfica to carry their momentum into the second period.
After the lengthy suspension of play, striker Vangelis Pavlidis added a second in the 53rd minute after an impressive moment of individual skill. Renato Sanches added a third from the bench as the floodgates opened.
Leandro Barreiro scored a late quick-fire double before Di Maria completed the scoring with another penalty eight minutes into stoppage time.
GO FURTHER
Benfica 6 Auckland City 0: Lage’s patience tested as underdogs dig deep
FIFA gave its 32 competing teams a billion reasons to take a revamped Club World Cup seriously when announcing its monstrous prize pot back in March.
Each and every club had appetites sharpened by the announcement of a $1billion fund in March, with the lucky winner potentially walking away with up to $125million for less than a month’s work.
The short-term gains have been there for all to see — $2m just for a group game win — yet it is the intangibles, a promise of commercial growth in a largely untapped market, that also ensures no participating club is dismissive of the opportunity presenting itself in the United States.
The empty seats at many stadiums, and patchy quality of the football, may have sparked some barbed comments in more established football territories.
But to the clubs involved, this is a brand-building moment and a chance to either entrench positions in the market or to spark growth.
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Out of solidarity for a commonwealth nation that still recognises the King as its head of state, England’s Harry Kane was not among the Bayern goalscorers in their 10-0 demolition of Auckland City in Cincinnati.
It did not seem to perturb him.
Kane already had 38 goals for the season coming into the tournament. Rather than play catch-up with his team-mates, they’re the ones in his wake. The former Tottenham striker cut a relaxed figure before playing Boca in the second game in Group C.
And he soon got his first goal of the Club World Cup, finishing in typical Kane style to give Bayern an early lead in their second group game.
Michael Olise’s late goal ensured Bayern Munich beat Boca Juniors despite a wonderful individual goal from Miguel Merentiel to become the first European team to qualify for the knockout stages at the Club World Cup in their second Group C match.
Bayern could have been 3-0 up after 20 minutes, with Olise’s Olimpico (a goal direct from a corner) disallowed by VAR and Kingsley Coman missing an open goal from inside the six-yard box either side of Harry Kane’s 18th-minute strike.
The German champions looked to be cruising to victory until Merentiel exploded through their defence and cracked a fine strike past Manuel Neuer that sent most of the 63,587 crowd at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami into ecstasy.
Boca were on the front foot, but Olise, who lost the ball in the build-up to Boca’s goal, struck from the edge of the area to win the game for Bayern.
Is this the game for one player to take another step towards being crowned the tournament's top scorer and winning the golden boot?
Bayern Munich have two players among the leading pack so far, while Benfica have one. All of the following players have scored three goals so far at the Club World Cup and are joint top scorers:
*Eliminated from the tournament
These tournaments are all about the shared experience — and we would love to hear from you throughout this Club World Cup.
Be it a comment, observation, prediction, a question you always wanted answered, or something completely different, we welcome it all.
Email us at live@theathletic.com and have your say. We’re already looking forward to reading what you’ve got for us.
“It's impossible, terribly hot. My toenails were hurting; I couldn't slow down or speed up. It was unbelievable.”
“Today was too hot and the time of the day when we played did not help.”
“It would have been better to play at a different time.”
Players, fans and executives have been complaining to The Athletic about the heat at the Club World Cup – and it's about to get a lot hotter as a heatwave will hit the north-east of the US this week, taking temperatures past 100F and turning up the humidity.
FIFA says it has cooling breaks in place for players but experts say it should take more proactive action. The Athletic's staff on the ground explain the issues, how teams are trying to cope, what FIFA is doing and consider if it should do more
GO FURTHER
Extreme heat at the Club World Cup: Players and fans voice concerns as temperatures soar
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Let's check out the latest edition of The Athletic’s Club World Cup daily power rankings — our look at who’s hot, who’s not, and how the struggle for global club supremacy is shaking out, updated at the end of each day’s play.
We're using the results of this competition alone to project who has the best chance to win the trophy — as well as teams who appear doomed to an early ticket home. To today's rankings!
A really tough test for the Portuguese side today against one of the top-performing teams at the tournament so far.
Clarity was in short supply during the breathless drama of yesterday's final Group A matches played simultaneously, but the tension should crystallise one thing for FIFA when deliberating on the Club World Cup's future direction.
The expansion of the field to 32 teams has, so far, been a sporting success, helping the competition legitimise itself — but world football’s governing body must not indulge a logic which assumes more always equals better.
Last night’s two helter-skelter matches were perfect examples of the jeopardy and gladiatorial duels which come from only two sides in each four-team group progressing into the knockout phase of a tournament.
It was the sort of night likely to be far rarer at next summer’s also-expanded 48-team World Cup, up from 32, because the eight best third-placed sides in the groups will also advance.
It's brilliant to have you with us.
We are now three hours to kick-off here in Charlotte, and so much more to come between now and then.
Me and super Nancy Froston to bring you all of it.
Stick around!

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