The Club World Cup group stage has finally come to an end as we have narrowed it down from thirty-two to sixteen teams. There have been wild story lines that spanned the last two weeks of football here in the United States. It all started with a 0-0 draw in Miami on June 14th and forty-eight matches later we are set for the round of sixteen. We will be going over in depth analysis of each group, what pushed teams through to the knockouts, and which teams left much to be desired.
Group A:
In this group we started the tournament with a thrilling 0-0 draw between Inter Miami and Al Ahly. Palmeiras and Porto also opened with a 0-0 draw that saw Palmeiras fight for all three points in the final fifteen minutes of the match. The only difference in this group was matchday two. Inter Miami faced off against FC Porto with João Mário putting away a penalty. Lionel Messi got his first goal of the tournament with a stunning freekick to put Miami 2-1 up and secure three points. Palmeiras also got two goals, but unlike Miami they were able to keep a clean sheet against Al Ahly. All four teams drew once again on match day three to shock the world and let Inter Miami progress into the knockout stages behind Palmeiras with whom they finished even on five points.
Group B:
Group B had an absolutely wild finish on matchday three. The group kicked off with the wild 4-0 victory at the Rose Bowl. PSG came out and dominated Atlético de Madrid and never let up throughout the entire match. Botafogo defeated the Seattle Sounders, despite not really bossing the game in any sense. Matchday two rolled around and Botafogo stunned the world by defeating the European champions 1-0 to move to the top of the table as they guaranteed their spot in the knockout stages. Madrid faced off against Seattle and their 3-1 win was capped off by a brace from Pablo Barrios leaving Madrid and PSG even on three points going into matchday three. PSG knew they needed three points to secure their way through to the knockouts as well, and they did that courtesy of goals from Kvaratskhelia and Achraf Hakimi. Madrid came into this match with hopes of stealing three points and scoring enough to push Botafogo out of the knockouts. Madrid scored one which was not enough to sneak into the round of sixteen and got eliminated despite having six points, and a stellar group campaign.
Group C:
Benfica faced Argentinian super power Boca Juniors with a stellar match seeing four goals, three red cards, two teams down to ten men, and a partridge in a pear tree. This match ended 2-2. The other match in this group was just as exciting, but in a completely different way. Bayern München faced off against semi professional club Auckland City. Bayern were ranked 6th coming into this match, and Auckland City were ranked 5,073rd. This match ended in the only way it could. Bayern München scored ten goals against a goalkeeper who works as a forklift operator in a veterinary pharmaceutical warehouse. Connor Tracey, who has a FIFA ranking of 45, matched up against wild strikers like Kingsley Coman (2G, 1A), Michael Olise (2G, 2A), and Jamal Musiala (3G, 0A). Matchday two rolled around and Auckland City got dominated again, this time by Benfica. The final score in this match was 6-0 as Bayern München scored a late winner courtesy of Michael Olise in the eighty-fourth minute to send them through to the knockout stages. On matchday three it was finally Boca Juniors turn to beat up on Auckland City. The match started slowly and at the end of the first half Nathan Garrow scored an own goal to give Boca Juniors the lead. In the second half Auckland City won a corner and as it swung in the head of teacher in training Christian Gray connected with the ball and flew into the back of the net to pull Auckland City back level. Auckland City defended well for the remainder of the match to eliminate Boca Juniors and send Benfica and Bayern through. Over in Charlotte, Andreas Schjelderup scored a goal to give Benfica their first win over Bayern in their team’s history.
Group D:
This group was one of the most tame groups we witnessed. The group was ultimately decided in the 3-0 defeat that Chelsea suffered to Flamengo. Espérance had a chance to go through, but they were not able to secure the results that they needed against Flamengo and Chelsea. The gap between these four teams really could not have been overcome as the Tunisians and Americans could not get positive results and brought a quick end to the tournament.
Group E:
Group E was another group of three teams; Inter, Monterrey, and River Plate. River Plate faced the Japanese Urawa Red Diamonds and defeated them 3-1 while Monterrey and Inter Milan drew 1-1. With River Plate having their free three they went on to face Monterrey where they drew 0-0 and Inter grabbed a win over Urawa. On matchday three Inter secured themselves as the only team in the group to win two matches as they defeated River Plate 2-0. Monterrey secured the win they needed to move onto the knockout stages as they beat Urawa by the largest difference of the group, 4-0.
Group F:
Group F saw its most important match on matchday one, with Fluminense and Dortmund clashing. Dortmund came out completely flat and they drew 0-0 with Fluminense which allowed both teams to look at the rest of their group with relative ease. Ulsan HD vs Mamelodi Sundowns had the least attended match of the entire tournament to this point, only drawing a measly 3,400 fans in Orlando. Mamelodi would go on to win this match 1-0 despite having two goals disallowed. This one goal lead was plenty to bring them through with a win and set them up for a successful group stage. A total of thirteen goals were put home between these four teams over the span of matchday two. Fluminense defeated Ulsan HD by a score of four goals to two and Dortmund squeaked out a win over the Mamelodi Sundowns with the match ending 4-3. In the final match Fluminense needed a draw to go through against Sundowns. They came in, parked the bus, got a point, and moved on to the knockouts. Dortmund took three points from Ulsan 1-0. Dortmund and Fluminense both did well and progressed to the round of sixteen.
Group G:
This group was just about as straight forward as it gets. Man City came in and took nine points from their group with a 6-0 win over Al Ain and a 5-2 win over Juventus. Juve had success in their two other matches, they won 5-0 over Al Ain and 4-1 over Wydad. Al Ain were only able to defeat Wydad with a final score of 2-1, making this a perfect 9-6-3 group.
Group H:
Group H wrapped up last night with the final table looking exactly how I had it predicted. Real Madrid were on top with seven points after drawing Al-Hilal on matchday one. Al-Hilal came into matchday two desperately wanting three points and only walking away with one. Christian Sawieschietzky holding off the excellent attack from Al-Hilal. CF Pachuca faced Al-Hilal last night as they finished with a two goal win, and exactly what they needed to go through. FC Salzburg lost to Real Madrid and landed in third with four points. Mexican team CF Pachuca finished with three losses and zero points.
What to look for in the knockouts:
As we look on to the round of sixteen keep your eyes open for crazy upsets. The beauty of a World Cup-esque format is that one bad day from a massive club like PSG or Bayern leaves a path for a completely new contender. For Dortmund to make it all the way to the final they would possibly need to get past 4 massive Champions League clubs. Another massive story line to look for is Brazilian clubs making a deep run in the knockout stages. Three out of the four Brazilian teams are on the same side of the bracket and Flamengo are taking on Bayern in the first round. Stay tuned as the tournament heats up and catch all the matches and analysis of the remaining fifteen matches.
Stats, standings, and all other match information- Sofascore.com
