Boca Juniors were held to a 1-1 draw by Auckland City and failed to reach the knockout stage of the Club World Cup on Tuesday in steamy Nashville, Tennessee, where the match was suspended for nearly 50 minutes due to stormy weather.
Boca came into the game needing both a convincing win against already-eliminated Auckland City to overturn a seven-goal difference with Benfica and for the Portuguese club to lose to German champions Bayern Munich in the other Group C fixture.
Auckland City had just drawn level shortly after the break when lightning in the area forced players off the field. By the time play resumed, Benfica had secured a 1-0 win to qualify top of Group C and reach the last 16 along with Bayern.
Boca went ahead in the first half courtesy of an own goal by Auckland City goalkeeper Nathan Garrow while Christian Gray drew his side level in the 52nd minute with a header that sailed inside the right post.
The goal was Auckland’s first of the competition and led to wild celebrations from the players, many of whom had to take leave from their full-time jobs in order to make the trip to the United States.
The 13-time OFC Champions League winners are the only amateur team at the Club World Cup and lost their previous group matches 10-0 to Bayern Munich and 6-0 to Benfica.
Information from Reuters was used in this report.
