FIFA Club World Cup Preview: Group C

Group C should be fairly straightforward with two of Europe’s elite clubs Bayern Munich and Benfica towering above Boca Juniors from Argentina and Auckland City from New Zealand.

Bayern Munich cruised to the Bundesliga title this season, while Benfica fell just short of Sporting in Portugal.

Auckland City is a fun story. They are a semi-professional team playing out of New Zealand and have won the Oceania Champions League a record 13 times. They have participated in the FIFA Club World Cup a number of times, but haven’t won match since they finished third in 2014.

Edinson Cavani’s Boca Juniors are currently sitting in the third domestically, but have a lot of question marks considering they just hired Miguel Ángel Russo to be their new manager on June 2nd.

Bayern Munich

Based on my simulations:

Knockout Stage: 95.85%

Quarterfinals: 70.80%

Semifinals: 47.33%

Finals: 30.96%

Champions: 18.69%

Vincent Kompany’s Bayern Munich finished off the season with some the mnost dominant numbers we’ve ever seen. In 34 Bundesliga matches they only allowed 25.5 expected goals and finished second behind only PSG with a +1.65 xGD per 90 minutes.

The reason for that is because of Kompany’s very aggressive midfield overload and their 2-4-4 build up formation.

What the 4-4-2 allows them to do is create a barrier around the opponents defensive block to pin them in and suffocate them. They will often use Harry Kane dropping in or even their wingers inverting to allow tho try and overload the middle of the pitch.

Of course, many teams will simply sit in and not allow them to have control of the middle. So, Bayern will often get their wingers Olise, Gnarby, Coman, and Sane into 1 v 1 situations against the opposing fullback to create a chance via a cross where they have one of the best aerial threats in world football Harry Kane waiting in the box.