Two minutes into this one, and Benfica’s Kerem Aktürkoglu had the first chance of the game, flashing the ball wide when well placed. Auckland had barely touched the ball by this point, and it set the tone for much of the rest of the game.
As Águias were getting joy down the channels without troubling their opponents centrally, and Nicolás Otamendi’s overhead kick at least gave the sparsely populated crowd something to cheer, even if the ball went straight into keeper Nathan Garrow’s arms.
Garrow was on hand again just a minute later to deny Orkun Kökçü, whilst at the other end, Jerson Lagos’ goal-bound shot was blocked.
Haris Zeb began to get his side up the pitch, and some intelligent passages of play from the likes of Myer Bevan and Zhou Tong prompted Benfica manager Bruno Lage to lambast his players.
Aktürkoglu again had time and space to open the scoring but drilled another shot wide, a speculative effort from Ángel Di María flew into the stands, and Vangelis Pavlidis somehow missed from six yards out after being set up by the Argentine.
Heading into half time, a disallowed goal on 42’ summed up their luck. Garrow’s seven first-half saves continued to frustrate their opponents, but in the fifth minute of injury time, Auckland's resistance was finally broken.
An overzealous Zeb cleaned out Gianluca Prestianni, handing Benfica a penalty that was easily dispatched by Di María.
Adverse weather caused the second half to be delayed by two hours and 20 minutes, and when proceedings finally got underway again, both sides went on the attack.
Zeb’s daisy-cutter on 48’ had to be pushed wide by Anatoliy Trubin, and Bevan went close soon after, though Pavlidis’ expert finish finally put some daylight between the two sides.
Substitute Renato Sanches buried a long-range effort just two minutes after coming on, but a sustained period of Benfica pressure didn’t lead to further reward until Leandro Barreiro bundled home their fourth on 75’ and fifth on 77’ as Auckland tired.
Nikko Boxall’s lunging challenge on Di María on 94’ resulted in another penalty, with the FIFA World Cup winner completing a six-goal rout with a low drive.
The final score was tough on Garrow, whose heroics arguably stopped another double-digit defeat.
Despite it being the first time in six games that the Portuguese side have stopped an opponent from scoring, Benfica are still likely to go into their last Group C game against Bayern with a little trepidation after an under-par first-half showing.
Auckland, meanwhile, have conceded 16 goals in two games and will be on their way home as soon as their final game against Boca Juniors is over.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nathan Garrow (Auckland City)
See a summary of the match here
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