Benfica gave Barcelona a run for his or her cash the final time they performed host to the Catalans within the UEFA Champions League.
The aforementioned assembly, the truth is, was simply earlier this season within the league part of the competitors and the sport that unfolded was a thriller in each sense of the phrase.
In a topsy-turvy recreation that included penalties, personal targets, and goalkeeping howlers, Barcelona finally got here out on prime within the ninety fifth minute with a exact Raphinha counter-attack.
Tomorrow evening, they meet once more for the primary of two legs of their Ro16 tie which will likely be at Estadio da Luz.
Benfica supervisor shares his ideas
Talking to the media forward of his staff’s Spherical of 16 conflict towards Barcelona within the UEFA Champions League, Benfica supervisor Bruno Lage was requested to present his ideas on his opponents, the technique for the sport, and the favourites.
“The query of who’s the favorite shouldn’t be vital to us, the vital factor is that we imagine in our means to qualify,” he started.
Lage’s males gave Barcelona severe bother the final time the 2 groups met this season as they successfully exploited the Catalans’ excessive line of defense and created quite a few probabilities to attain. When requested if the strategy could be the identical tomorrow, he stated:
“The strategy is much like that technique. Tomorrow we are going to attempt to apply what we predict is the most effective technique for the match. We all know that we’ll face a terrific staff with a powerful assault.
“However we additionally take a look at the optimistic issues we’ve got completed towards our opponent, the targets we’ve got scored, the probabilities we’ve got created a number of occasions within the opponent’s areas, which didn’t go removed from the objective however hit the goalkeeper.”
Lage then confirmed that they might stick alongside the identical strains tomorrow, and unsurprisingly so.
“We are going to take a look at all of that and work on enhancing in keeping with our present state of affairs.”
The Benfica supervisor was then requested how vital his midfielders and full-backs could be tomorrow towards Barcelona, particularly to successfully counter the excessive line of defense.
“This query will likely be answered on the pitch, not right here. That is what we’re specializing in. We’re finding out our opponent and searching for the areas they offer us,” stated the Benfica boss.
Prepared for Barcelona. (Picture by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Pictures)
“Your query is essential, we should know at each second find out how to transfer and exploit the areas that will likely be obtainable to us, what sort of actions to make, and with what number of gamers can they be executed,” he added.
Lage then offered an replace on injured gamers and the squad obtainable for the conflict towards Hansi Flick’s facet. In a serious announcement, he revealed that Angel Di Maria will likely be unavailable.
“Di Maria shouldn’t be obtainable for the match, as for Florentino, there was a query about his situation. Concerning Renato Sanches, we are going to see if he will likely be on the listing.”
He additionally confirmed that Florentino Luis will play no half tomorrow within the midfield as he will likely be unavailable. As an alternative, he revealed that he had a backup plan in place.
“We have now one other participant who will play, I gained’t point out his identify, however an important factor is that the staff works as a unit.”
Lastly, the Benfica supervisor was quizzed on Hansi Flick’s concept that Benfica is best rested for tomorrow’s conflict and the way true it was on condition that each groups have performed the identical variety of video games in 2025.
“I agree if we take a look at it usually. We have now to debate the variety of video games and the time between them as a result of, between tomorrow’s recreation and the subsequent league recreation, we gained’t even have 72 hours of relaxation,” Lage famous.
“These are extra vital issues than specializing in whether or not a sure staff performed or didn’t play. I believe it is going to be a terrific recreation as a result of each groups prefer to assault, and that was proven within the targets and probabilities that every staff created within the earlier recreation.”
Supply: SPORT