Club World Cup

(17-06-2025 07:59 )Charlemagne Wrote:  Boco Juniors stepped it up one level last night. It took me back to the teams of the 70's.
They were very heavy on the challenges and often got away with it by the Mexican referee.

Teams playing them will get battered and bruised.

Result Benfica pulled two goals back to end up drawing Boco Juniors 2-2

Bet there was lot of diving as well and probably someone bribed the ref

(17-06-2025 07:23 )HannahsPet Wrote:  actually most games been ok for attendance apart from this one

Here are the figures:

Al Ahly vs Inter Miami - 60,927 (94%)
Bayern Munich vs Auckland City - 21,152 (81%)
PSG vs Atletico Madrid - 80,619 (90%)
Palmeiras vs Porto - 46,275 (56%)
Botafogo vs Seattle Sounders - 30,151 (44%)
Chelsea vs Los Angeles - 22,137 (31%)
Boca Juniors vs Benfica - 55,574 (86%)
Flamengo vs Espérance Tunis - 25,797 (38%)

I'm not a fan of the players walking out one by one, which is an innovation for this tournament, nor the needless countdown to kick off. For me the refcam hasn't added much either, although it's probably here to stay, nor the referee announcing VAR decisions as although it's been welcomed by some it seems to be the referee just stating the obvious.

Attendances update.

Fluminense vs Borussia Dortmund - 34,736 (42%)
River Plate vs Urawa Red Diamonds - 11,974 (17%)
Ulsan HD vs Mamelodi Sundowns - 3,412 (13%)
Monterrey vs Inter Milan - 40,311 (45%)
Manchester City vs Wydad AC - 37,446 (55%)
Real Madrid vs Al-Hilal - 62,415 (96%)
Pachuca vs Red Bull Salzburg - 5,282 (20%)
Al Ain vs Juventus - 18,161 (91%)

The European teams have had a few setbacks. Many pundits were predicting complete European dominance, but it hasn't turned out that way so far.

The tournament seems to be hotting up. No pun intended, as I wasn't referring to the increasing number of complaints about the weather, although on that subject the World Cup is going to be held in the USA next year at exactly the same time of year.

After Auckland City's draw against River Plate, it was nice to see their goalscorer Christian Gray given a hero's welcome from the children at the school he teaches at.

Man City probably the best team in the group stage. Onwards to the knock out matches.

Is this some kind of record? In the Chelsea-Benfica match there were 2 hours and 28 minutes between Chelsea taking the lead and Benfica equalising (this was after play was suspended for the 6th time in this tournament due to fear of lightening strikes).

That was a wild night! Just as well that Chelsea have 6 days to recover before the next game against Palmeiras on Friday. The second quarter final on Saturday will be Bayern-PSG.