Benfica won 3–0 at home against Santa Clara and retained the four-point lead over runners-up, Sporting de Braga, finishing the first round with 44 points, the club’s third-best mark in the 21st century, after the 46 points achieved by Jorge Jesus in 2014/15 and Bruno Lage’s 48 in 2019/20.
Roger Schmidt introduced Morato instead of the suspended Otamendi, but surprised by using Draxler (and not David Neres) instead of the injured Rafa. As for Gonçalo Guedes, he started on the substitutes bench, but wouldn’t come on until the second half.
The Reds practically went on to win the game, in the 9th minute, with the first shot he made, with Aursnes successfully heading in, from an excellent cross from Enzo Fernández. It was the Norwegian’s first goal for the Reds, in the 21st official game, and the Argentinian’s sixth assist in 27 games.
The Eagles completely dominated and showed impressive effectiveness, rising to 2-0… on the second chance of scoring, at 17″. Again with Enzo Fernández’s vision on the game that made all the difference: the midfielder opened on the left in Grimaldo , who passed with precision in front of the near post by Gonçalo Ramos, who deflected goalkeeper Gabriel Batista with a subtle touch (already scored 18 if we count all competitions.) As for Grimaldo, it was his fifth pass on goal in this championship, a total of 44 in I Liga matches, in eight seasons with the club.
When this Benfica team puts pressure on the whole field and reacts immediately to loss of possession – the famous 5-second rule, defended by Roger Schmidt – it is very difficult to be contradicted by almost all Portuguese formations. The Santa Clara players struggled to face their opponents, but at 20″ they showed their grace, with Gabriel Silva appearing in good position in the visitors’ area, but firing wide.
Enzo Fernández “filled the field”, showing that the controversy is apparently over and he is body and soul in Benfica, but the one who insists on not touching the step is Draxler, who suffered an incredible loss after 26 minutes against a player of the districts, let alone for a world champion: he shot wide when he was a few yards from goal, with only Gabriel Batista in front of him.
Jorge Simão wasn’t happy with what he saw (nor could he…) and at 30″ made the first substitution, with Ricardinho replacing MT. But the meaning of the game didn’t change, with total supremacy of Lisbon, who had two more great chances to increase the score until the break, by Gonçalo Ramos. 0 in Estoril, for the championship).
Benfica came back into the game in a more moderate way and Santa Clara managed to break free from the pressure, almost always through Ricardinho (a striker who already has a tradition of playing good games against big clubs) and Gabriel Silva, a very fast Brazilian. winger.
The game was very hot, but Roger Schmidt did not want his players to fall asleep and launched three players at once at 64″: Chiquinho, David Neres and Gonçalo Guedes, the latter making his debut just a day after his presentation. He left Benfica for PSG in January 2017, aged just 20. The players replaced were Florentino, João Mário and Aursnes.
Benfica dropped sharply compared to the first half and this was Santa Clara’s best phase. At 68″, Gabriel Siva was very close to 1-2, taking advantage of a poor pass from António Silva, but it would be the young centre-back who made amends with a powerful header almost over the goal line. 72″ and without the striker, Santa Clara “disappeared” again…
Gonçalo Guedes went to play on the left side of the attack and, after a good job in the Azores penalty area, couldn’t have wished for a better debut as he made the final score 3-0 at 80″.
Source: DN
