Soccer Football - FIFA Club World Cup - Group C - Benfica v Bayern Munich - Bank of America Stadium, Charlotte, North Carolina, U.S. - June 24, 2025 Benfica coach Bruno Lage after the match REUTERS/Kai Pfaffenbach
(Reuters) -Benfica manager Bruno Lage urged fans to have more faith in his team after they pulled off a surprise 1-0 victory over Bayern Munich on Tuesday to secure top spot in Group C at the Club World Cup.
Andreas Schjelderup's 13th-minute goal sealed the win to put Benfica top of the group with seven points, one ahead of the Bundesliga champions.
WHY IT'S IMPORTANT
After a 2–2 draw in their opener against Boca Juniors and a shaky first half in a 6–0 win over Auckland City, Benfica earned their first win in 14 official matches against Bayern Munich.
With their first-place finish at the revamped FIFA tournament, the Portuguese league runners-up are set to face either Chelsea or Esperance de Tunis in the round of 16.
KEY QUOTES
Lage: "We went into this game with a lot of confidence. The first half was very good, we created the best chances to score. We wanted to be aggressive and we finished first in the group and the feeling is good.
"We finished first and it means a lot for us. People need to believe more in the work we are doing. They were speaking about Boca needing to win by a lot of goals (to advance) and they forgot about this game. No one believed we were going to win against Bayern.
"We have a very good group, we are evaluated every three days by the result, but when we win we are not the best and when we do not win we are not the worst.
"Now we have to stay humble, recover, rest as much as possible, understand who our opponents will be and go into the game with the same ambitions."
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico CityEditing by Toby Davis)
