Boca Juniors vs Benfica live updates: Club World Cup 2025 predictions, team news, latest score
Good day to you all and welcome to our latest instalment of the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup — specifically the Argentine powerhouse that is Boca Juniors, facing the red side of Lisbon, in Benfica.
This is the second game in Group C, after Bayern Munich put amateur minnows Auckland City to the sword 10-0 in Cincinnati yesterday.
And this should be a much more competitive affair, with Hard Rock Stadium a fitting venue.
We have full build-up and match updates on the way for you, as well as all the insights you need from our team of correspondents at the ground and watching on.
So don't go anywhere, because we've got you covered from here.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
The 3️⃣ key players in Boca's Club World Cup debut
Boca Juniors had a promising debut in the 2025 Club World Cup, although they were left with a bitter taste after drawing with Benfica despite leading 2-0. But Xeneize played a very good match and had outstanding performances, as well as an intensity and energy that allow them to dream about their participation in this international tournament. Advertisement Miguel Ángel Russo had a new debut at the helm of Boca Juniors, and some of his decisions have already had a significant impact on the team. These are the 3️⃣ protagonists of Boca's debut in the Club World Cup. Miguel Merentiel 📸 Megan Briggs - 2025 Getty Images The Uruguayan striker scored the first goal, anticipating a low cross at the near post. But he was also very switched on, constantly challenging Benfica's defense, connecting with the team, and lifting them with his attitude and commitment. There was some concern when he left the field after taking a knock in the second half, but it was confirmed to be just cramps in both calves, which shows the effort he put in on a hot and humid afternoon. Rodrigo Battaglia 📸 PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA - AFP or licensors Advertisement The first important decision by Miguel Ángel Russo was to move Rodrigo Battaglia, who under Fernando Gago generally played as a center-back, into midfield to play as a holding midfielder. He was the best in Boca's midfield and perhaps played his best match since joining the club, at the level he had shown at Atlético Mineiro. Nicolás Otamendi 📸 Megan Briggs - 2025 Getty Images Unfortunately for the Xeneize faithful, the Argentina national team player became a hero near the end (both goals against Boca were scored by Argentinians). Due to his well-known 'Millonario' affiliation, he was the main target of Boca fans present in Miami, and he also angered several Boca players. The truth is, Otamendi scored a great goal to rescue his team when they were down a man, and there's a reason he's the captain of the Portuguese team. This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here. 📸 Dan Mullan - 2025 Getty Images
New York Times
2 hours ago
- New York Times
‘Find me players who can dribble': Cherki, Ait-Nouri, Reijnders and Guardiola's desire for ball-carriers
Shortly after the arrival of Pep Guardiola, Manchester City's 100-plus battalion of global scouts assembled in the same room to discover the special ingredients he looks for in a player. It was his first address to the recruitment staff but rather than a list of tactical intricacies, his message was surprisingly unvarnished. Advertisement 'It's simple, guys, find me players who can dribble. I will do the rest,' was the gist of it, before he entered into the more layered details. That was in 2016. He had recently worked with two direct wingers in Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery at Bayern Munich, having nurtured Lionel Messi into the best player in the world by placing his dribbling ability front and centre of his Barcelona team in the false-nine position. Guardiola as a constrainer of creativity was not a mainstream theory then, but Manchester City's dominance over the past nine years has greased those wheels. It is regularly claimed that his football is incompatible with individualism and sidelines the art of dribbling, and that he has spread this illness in the game. Jack Grealish, who has been left out of City's squad for the Club World Cup, has become the poster boy of this accusation since he joined from Aston Villa in 2021 for £100million ($141m) and transformed from a roving maverick to a wide possession retainer. To some, he represents the robotic nature of Guardiola's positional play. To many of those who have worked with him, they see it as a myth that has been perpetuated without understanding the nuance of what makes his genius. His message to the scouts was to find dribblers because he primarily views his role as a coach to be responsible for strategising how his team work the ball into the final third, as Thierry Henry outlined on Monday Night Football, citing his experience of playing on the left wing under Guardiola at Barcelona. 'The first time he took the team, he said to us, 'My job is to bring you up to the last third, your job is to finish it',' Henry said. Guardiola laughed at the idea he is against dribbling in an interview last season. 'If your quality is there, dribble,' he said. 'I will tell you when (it) is better to do it and try to provide Jeremy Doku, through our game, chances to use his dribble as much as possible. This is my job. You get the ball in the better conditions with more space to control and dribble your opponent.' Advertisement This requires elite one-v-one dribblers but, having moved away from that model in the treble-winning season of 2022-23 when he deployed a mix of Grealish, Bernardo Silva and Phil Foden in wide areas, Guardiola is recruiting more and more dribblers into his team. Rayan Ait-Nouri's biggest strength is his ability to receive under pressure and skip past a player in either direction, so much so that only 10 players attempted more take-ons than the left-back did for Wolves last season in the Premier League. Rayan Cherki is like a street footballer in how expressive he is and how many tricks he throws in, which is why no player in Europe's top five leagues last season created higher-value opportunities for their team-mates last season per 90 minutes. Tijjani Reijnders is so adept at driving through the middle of the middle of the pitch that only Lazio's Matteo Guendouzi made more forward carries of 10 metres or more last season in Serie A. Add to that Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, not the most efficient but arguably the most jinky and explosive dribbler in the game right now, and Matheus Nunes, whose ball carrying was the standout trait that won him a move from Wolves, and there appears to be a tilt towards ball-carriers. The graph below shows how City have recruited some of Europe's most direct dribblers of the last few years. Doku is in a world of his own in terms of how many take-ons he attempts each game, averaging over 10, and how many times he enters the box with the ball, averaging over six. Savinho and Cherki are in the cluster of players below him but what does it tell us about how Guardiola views the tactical changes he is facing in the Premier League and what does that tell us about the next edition of Manchester City we are about to see? 'Pep said to me, 'When you have the ball, you are free',' Cherki said after signing. Advertisement He has shown the ability to re-imagine his teams both tactically and physically, shape-shifting several times. When Guardiola arrived, inviting the press to play through the opposition was new to English football. Two wingers providing the width for the team had always been a key principle of his teams and the opposition taking the bait meant that when they found Raheem Sterling and Leroy Sane, they could take advantage of the space left in behind given their pace and dribbling ability. Teams adapted and low blocks began to be the main tactic used against City. It created the necessity for more small-space players who could play their way through this mass of bodies. Riyad Mahrez could straddle both genres but two of Grealish, Foden and Silva were often used to provide a more surgical approach. To buttress that desire for control, the profile of full-back Guardiola employed changed. Gone was Joao Cancelo, in favour of four centre-backs to help guard against counterattacks with John Stones playing a hybrid role in the treble-winning season in which he would move into holding midfield when City had possession. Last season, though, that approach became stale and too many teams were comfortable defending their box before launching counterattacks. 'Today, without players who can dribble, nothing can be done,' said Guardiola in 2023. 'Attacking a team that is stuck in its own goal, without players who dribble, who do not get you superiority with moves into spaces, is impossible.' With more and more teams pressing in a man-to-man style, players must be able to dominate their direct opponent in bigger spaces. In that context, Guardiola's signing of players who excel in one-v-one situations could see a more direct possession style than we have been used to, particularly with the influence of former Liverpool assistant coach Pep Lijnders as his new right-hand man. Advertisement After Josko Gvardiol's late forward dashes against Club Brugge in January and Nico O'Reilly's eye-catching performance against Bournemouth in the FA Cup where he repeatedly drove forward from deep, Guardiola seemed to appreciate what double width could bring to his team. Nunes and Marmoush combined effectively on the right flank in the final game of the season at Craven Cottage, a game in which City looked most dangerous when presented with space to run into. It is in those situations that Erling Haaland thrives. If Guardiola is building a support cast that suits those conditions, then City could pose a whole new type of threat.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
PHOTO COLLECTION: Best of Club World Cup Soccer Week 1
Benfica's Renato Sanches, center, fights for the ball with Boca Juniors' Carlos Palacios, right, and Alan Velasco (20) during the Club World Cup group C soccer match between Boca Juniors and Benfica in Miami Gardens, Fla., Monday, June 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell) (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
