Roger Schmidt yesterday rejected the idea that Tuesday evening’s match (8 p.m., TVI) with Inter Milan, at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, will be decisive for Benfica’s career in the group stage of the Champions League. The German coach admits that, unlike last season, in which the competition “started better”, the home defeat against the Austrian RB Salzburg (0-2) this time put his team in a situation that is “not easy”. “Tomorrow’s match is not decisive, but we have to think about the match against Inter. That is an opportunity for us. Winning would be great and a point might also be good,” he assumed.
Benfica visits Milan more than five months after a 3-3 draw in the quarter-finals of the Champions League, which resulted in qualification for the Italians. Schmidt says Inter are following the same path as last season, in which they were finalists in the Champions League, remembering that they are in first place in Serie A. He still left a guarantee: “We are not afraid of our opponents, we respect them, especially Inter, a team with many weapons. So we have to be prepared for everything.”
Roger Schmidt believes that Benfica “must influence the history of the game in the best possible way”, and the idea is to “approach all phases of the game well tactically and thus achieve a good result”.
When asked whether Benfica might want to avenge last season’s elimination, the German coach was clear and direct: “There is nothing to avenge. Inter deserved to get through the round and then reach the final. Now it will be a different contest.” Schmidt wants his team to “show quality”, because only then can they play “good international matches”. Regarding the differences he finds at Inter five months later, he emphasizes that the main change “is in the attack, especially in the front with the arrival of Thuram to replace Lukaku and Dzeko”, but in the rest the Benfica says coach that it is so. a matter of a team playing “very similarly, with three very attacking defenders and full-backs, many people behind the ball, making it difficult for the opponent to create scoring chances”.
Regarding the form of Lautaro Martínez, who scored poker in the 4-0 win over Salernitana, Roger Schmidt admitted that what he achieved in Saturday’s match was “impressive” as “there were four goals in four shots”. “He is a top player, one of the best in Europe. His teammates are always looking for him and he seems to finish,” he added.
Benfica arrived in Italy with the entire squad, including the suspended António Silva. The exception was Brazilian João Victor, who reportedly had a disagreement with the coach, something Schmidt said he did not want to comment on before this match. As for the possibility of not having a striker in the match against Inter, the German admitted that “anything is possible”. “Usually we play with a striker. This year we used Petar Musa and Arthur Cabral, who is still adapting and to whom we try to give as many minutes as possible,” he limited himself to saying, emphasizing that “it’s important to have fresh legs on the bench.
Di María: “We will have to give 100% to get a good result”
Also present at the press conference was Ángel Di María, who described Inter as “a team with players of great quality, with eleven or more players who, helped by a great atmosphere, can decide a match” and in this sense one certainty left: ” We will have to give 100% to get a good result.”
The Argentina international admitted he is “very happy” at Benfica, where he feels “at home”. “We can’t always be decisive, but I am in a good moment and that is essential to help the team grow and win titles,” he stressed.
At the launch of this reunion, Simone Inzaghi, Inter coach, emphasized that Benfica arrives in Milan motivated “after a great victory” against FC Porto. In this sense, he said it was a “very strong” team, which “lost the first game unexpectedly and probably unfairly, because they played with numerical inferiority for a long time and still created several chances”.
Source: DN
