Overview
Although Boca juniors have performed well up to this point at the FIFA Club World Cup 2025, the 1-2 loss to Bayern Munich has made their dream of reaching the knockout round fragile.
Before that, Boca's defeat under Bayern Munich ended a 9-match unbeaten streak of South American teams in this year's tournament.
After losing a 2-goal advantage to Benfica, coach Miguel Angel russo's team only has 1 point on the rankings. Therefore, only a victory will help them continue in Group C.
However, even when defeating Auckland City, Boca still had to wait for Benfica to lose to Bayern, thereby winning second place. In case the Portuguese team falls behind, Boca still need to win convincingly in Nashville, with a gap of 7 goals to fill the gap in goal difference.
In other cases, that becomes impossible. But with their opponent Auckland City - who have conceded an average of 8 goals per game so far in the tournament - Boca still have hope.
A draw in points and a goal difference could even make the ticket to the next round decided according to Fair Play criteria. But for now, the Argentine team needs to think about scoring the most goals possible against Auckland City.
Marking the third meeting between South American and Oceanian teams at the FIFA Club World Cup, this match will give Auckland City the final chance to score at least 1 goal in this year's tournament.
They lost 0-2 to San Lorenzo in 2014, and now Boca juniors are determined to win more destructively. This could cause more pain for Auckland City fans in their home country of New Zealand.
After a 0-10 defeat to Bayern Munich, coach Ivan Vicelich's team had a good first 45 minutes against Benfica. However, after a long delay due to weather, they finally lost 0-6 in Orlando.
Auckland City have now lost nine consecutive FIFA Club World Cup games, despite being considered the top team in the Atlantic.
They are currently holding a record of 13 OFC Champions League titles in less than two decades. However, Auckland City is extremely weak when stepping onto the big stage.
Expected lineup:
Auckland City: Garrow, Murati, Boxall, Den Heijer, Mitchell, Lobo, Yoo, Garriga, Ilich, Manickum, Bevan.
Boca juniors: Marchesin, Advincula, Battaglia, Pellegrino, Blanco, Belmonte, Zenon, Zeballos, Palacios, Velasco, Merentiel.
The match between Auckland City and Boca juniors takes place at 2:00 am on June 25 (Vietnam time).
