Coach Roger Schmidt said Monday that “it is not impossible” to win the Soccer Champions League, but for Benfica it would already be a great achievement to beat Bruges and reach the quarterfinals.
At a press conference in Seixal, the German coach assumed that “all the teams that are in the round of 16 can win” the ‘Champions’, but stressed that the chances are not equal.
“For the teams with lower budgets there is always a small chance, for the big ones the chances are greater. But of course it is possible. Nothing is impossible in football at this level. Right now we are very focused on reaching the quarterfinals. , which for a club like Benfica would already be a great achievement”, shot Schmidt.
For that, Benfica ‘only’ needs to hold on to the 2-0 victory achieved in the first leg, in Belgium, and is aware that Club Brugge, “from some point on, has to attack and go looking for those goals” . but the coach admitted not knowing if the rival will do it from the beginning and preferred to focus on his own team’s processes.
“If we are still in this competition, it is also because we always believed in ourselves and we always try to play our 90 minutes. And tomorrow [terça-feira] it’s the same thing. Of course we have an advantage, because we won, but regardless of that, we will try to play attacking and show that we deserve to qualify for the quarterfinals”, he pointed out.
Schmidt confirmed that Alexander Bah, Gonçalo Guedes and Chiquinho are fit to attend the match, so he has “the entire squad except Draxler and Ristic” at his disposal, but added that he has not yet decided who will play first.
“I’m still not 100% sure how we’re going to enter, but I’m happy to have all the options. There was a big question mark with Chiquinho and Gonçalo Guedes last week, but today we had confirmation, in training, that they are ready. There are two more options and now I have to think about the best approach”, said the coach of the ‘incarnated’.
Before the coach, António Silva also commented on the advantage of the Luz club at the start of the second leg of the round of 16 and assumed that Benfica will play to win.
“Without a doubt they will have to risk a little more, but we have our idea of the game, we want to take on the game clearly and win. [queremos] try to play a good game, nullify the strengths of the [Club] Bruges and try to bring us the tie, to go to the quarterfinals”, commented the 19-year-old center-back.
Benfica will receive Club Brugge on Tuesday, in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16, scheduled to start at 8:00 p.m., at the Estádio da Luz, in Lisbon, with the Turkish referee Halil Umut Meler.
The team led by Roger Schmidt comes out onto the field with a two-goal lead, won in the first leg, with a 2-0 win in Belgium, against a rival who, despite having qualified for the Champions League round of 16 , in the same group as FC Porto, have won only two of the last 14 official matches.
Source: TSF
