It was hard, but it was true. Benfica took third place in its group in the Champions League after winning 3-1 at RB Salzburg, with the third goal belonging to the much-controversial Arthur Cabral, who scored in stoppage time a minute after entering the field and donned the cape of the Eagles’ unlikely hero. A deserved result for the Reds’ excellent performance, but one that almost didn’t happen, largely thanks to Rafa, who despite scoring a goal squandered four other great chances.
Remember that in this last match, Benfica were obliged to win by at least two goals to guarantee qualification for the play-offs to reach the round of 16 of the Europa League. With Tomás Araújo replacing the suspended António Silva as big news in the eleven, Benfica started well, taking advantage of the space offered by the young Austrian team and in the 13th minute Rafa inaugurated his ode to waste: isolated in front of the guard nets Schlager, had a clumsy finish and shot into the clouds. RB Salzburg was also close to a goal in the 21st minute, but Dorgeles missed his acrobatic shot in the face of Turbin, Benfica responded with a move in which Tengstedt narrowly missed Di María’s cross and passed the ball. on that occasion, but scored shortly afterwards and in a way he had already threatened to do this season: through a direct corner, with goalkeeper Schlager clearly at fault.
The Eagles were one goal away from reaching third place (as long as they didn’t concede any goals, of course) and Turbin started to show that the goal would remain inviolable thanks to him, with a first-class defense, after Ratkov’s attack. shot. This intervention by the Ukrainian goalkeeper proved to be of enormous importance, as before the break Rafa increased the score to 0-2, bringing the Reds closer to the Europa League, in the only move in which he proved successful in reaching the goal. An action that started with an excellent ball recovery from João Neves and continued with a perfect assist from Di María.
Roger Schmidt made a change at the restart, with Petar Musa replacing Tengstedt. And the first signals from the Portuguese team in the second half were positive, imposing a dominant style, with the high pressing that characterized the previous season. Rafa was very close to making it 0-3 in the 52nd minute and RB Salzburg could not find solutions to penetrate Benfica’s defense, but suddenly, without being able to predict it, Sucic took a beautiful shot from outside the penalty area, with the ball Hitting Tomás Araújo and betraying Turbin, a severe punishment for Benfica’s good performance and which once again left the team virtually out of European competitions.
The certainty shown by Benfica until then disappeared and the match entered its most interesting phase, with dangerous movements in both goals, and in one of them a corner from Di María again caused big problems for the Austrian goalkeeper, with Otamendi very close. to 1-3. However, Turbin kept Benfica in the discussion for a place in the Europa League with two more good interventions.
Schmidt introduced Gonçalo Guedes in place of Kökçü in the 68th minute, after another poor performance from the Turk, and shortly afterwards Di María’s class came to the fore again, with an arcing shot from outside the penalty area hitting the post. “and at the age of 77, Rafa again missed two good chances, which once again highlighted the striker’s great difficulties when it came to shooting on goal, possibly the main reason why he never moved to a big club of the best European championships.
Until the end, Benfica remained in search of the goal that would qualify them for the Europa League and the newly introduced Arthur Cabral appeared on the scene, with an artistic deflection of a heel to Aursnes’ cross that allowed the club of Luz into the competition to stay. competitions, Europeans.
Source: DN
