Paris Saint-Germain laid down an ominous marker on their march towards global domination at the FIFA Club World Cup on Sunday as Bayern Munich showed no mercy to Auckland’s amateurs with a ruthless 10-0 walloping.
The first full day of action at the inaugural edition of the 32-team club tournament saw newly crowned European champions PSG produce a scintillating 4-0 rout of Atletico Madrid after Bayern’s double-digit drubbing of Auckland City.
The New Zealand minnows are one of the Cinderella stories of the tournament, made up of amateur players who had to take unpaid leave to travel to the United States.
But Bundesliga Bayern were in no mood to be charitable and duly ran riot in Cincinnati.
Jamal Musiala scored a second-half hat-trick after coming off the bench while Kingsley Coman, Michael Olise and Thomas Mueller all netted twice.
Sacha Boey scored the other goal in a Group C game that amounted to target practice for Bayern, who will face tougher tests against Boca Juniors and Benfica.
“We have to remain modest but it was important to be able to say that we took the game seriously,” said Bayern coach Vincent Kompany.
“It was a good first match at the tournament, but of course challenges are going to grow and it’s going to become more difficult.”
Auckland’s interim coach Ivan Vicelich admitted that his team had run into the “reality of football against one of the world’s top teams.”
“It is a dream for players coming from an amateur level to play in this environment,” Vicelich said.
“We knew it was going to be a very difficult game, playing against one of the top teams in the world, potentially one of the favourites for the Club World Cup, so we are just really proud of the players’ efforts.”