Benfica suffered its second defeat in two games in group D of the Champions League on Tuesday. A goal from Frenchman Marcus Thuram gave Inter Milan a 1-0 victory at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium, where The Reds remain without victory. And it can be said that the Benfica fans were still dreaming in the first half, thanks to a consistent performance that collided with Sommer and the bar.
After the break, however, Benfica collapsed against the overwhelmingly attacking Inter, who only failed to record a more comfortable victory because they played at a high level against Trubin.
In the match in which Benfica broke the streak of 10 games without losing away from home in the Champions League, Roger Schmidt surprised by the debut of the Spaniard Juan Bernat, but also because the sacrifice in the eleven was Petar Musa, who went to the bench . The strategy was clear: Di María, Rafa and David Neres up front, without any reference to Inter’s defenders, who appeared in their usual 3x5x2 formation. Highlight for Aursnes who re-emerged in midfield and used his ability to put opponents under pressure with the aim of regaining the ball close to the Italian area and helping to free the three fantasists from the attack.
The strategy started to pay off, especially as Benfica dominated the game and a sign of this is the 54% possession in their favor at half-time. Inter’s strategy was to try to win back the ball in midfield and make quick attacks, something that was practiced a few times due to some poor passing from the Red midfield, but that was offset by the speed at which the team played. during defensive transitions.
The first sign of danger was given by Inter, when Dumfries headed over after an assisted pass from Çalhanoglu. Benfica’s response almost resulted in a goal, however, as Aursnes looked isolated and fired for a corner after a brilliant save from Sommer. When Di María almost scored a goal, he crossed straight to the crossbar.
However, the Reds’ moment of great brilliance suffered a setback when Alexander Bah was injured in the 22nd minute and had to be replaced by centre-back Tomás Araújo, who had to be moved to right-back. Yet Benfica remained personal and on a counter-attack, David Neres fell into the penalty area in an action with Barella and claimed a penalty… after all, the Brazilian actually had to deal with a touch from the Italian midfielder.
From the stands of the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium came the silence of the distrustful Italian fans. And they only had reason to stand up when Trubin saved Barella’s shot.
Trubin quit what he was given
The first minutes of the second showed a very different Inter, busy looking for the goal and the match became very complicated for the Reds, who could not connect the game and saw the opponent come very close to the goal several times, first where Dumfries headed wide, after which Lautaro hit the crossbar and Trubin saved a shot from Barella. The misery repeated itself again and again. Lautaro hit the post after appearing alone in the area, with Trubin later solving the problem. However, the Ukrainian goalkeeper could do nothing in the 62nd minute, when Thuram received the ball from Dumfries and opened the scoring.
Benfica was a shadow of the team that dominated the match in the first half and was at the mercy of Inter’s attacking avalanche. Something had to be done and after a goal was comfortably disallowed due to Thuram’s offside, Roger Schmidt sent on Chiquinho and Petar Musa to replace Kökçü and Rafa.
But Inter were definitely better and proved it soon afterwards, with Otamendi and Trubin twice denying Lautaro Martínez the goal. In addition to the weak second half, Benfica lost Di María to an injury ten minutes before the end. The Argentinian was replaced by Arthur Cabral who shortly afterwards had a great opportunity, but shot wide.
The match didn’t end without another great intervention from Trubin, once again denying Lautaro the goal. The goalkeeper took the opportunity to dispel the doubts that arose about him.
Source: DN
