Benfica today qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a historic defeat and a few moments of high level football. The victory over Club Brugge (5-1) came about with goals from Rafa, Gonçalo Ramos (two), João Mário and David Neres and let the eagles (legitimately) dream of more. It is the first time in consecutive seasons that a Portuguese team is in the top eight.
In addition to increasing the sporting possibilities, the qualification is worth 10.6 million euros. Which means the reds have brought in 71.6 million so far this season. The Champions quarter-final opponent will be announced at the draw on the 17th… just check the box to the side to see who the potential opponents are. In addition to Benfica, João Félix’s Chelsea also qualified today.
Boosted by the advantage of two goals in the first leg (2-0) and more than 60,000 poppies jumping into the stands of Estádio da Luz, the red team went into the match at full speed and was penalized by VAR! With 1 minute and 17 seconds played, João Mário scored a goal that could very well have been a football anthem – a goal on the heel – had it not been (properly) canceled by Gonçalo Ramos’ offside.
Excessive speed was not penalized again in the 15th minute as Florentino Luís missed what is called a “goal done” in football jargon. If it had been a hit, the action would most likely have been canceled due to the irregular positioning of João Mário, who played a new role in front of goal minutes later. The number 20 shirt narrowly missed the mark.
Despite the blatant chances from Schmidt’s team, the game was more open and more divisive than Benfica’s missed opportunities showed. The Belgians eventually corrected their positions after half an hour and began to control the red attacks better. But they were betrayed in that intention by Gonçalo Ramos’ one-on-one destabiliser, who found Rafa Silva in the heart of the penalty area for the 1-0.
With Aursnes dulled by Bah’s offensive strikes, the Rafa-João Mário-Gonçalo Ramos trio gave the Belgian defense a ball. The striker had Rafa set up for the first goal and he created the second in an individual game that showed all the versatility of his attacking game. The Ramos festival would continue in the second half.
Ramos & Ramos limited…
The break came soon after, with the Luz stands in delirium. While there are no impossible things in football – as Schmidt recalled the day before, to put Benfica among the candidates to win the Champions League – it seemed impossible for the Belgians to score four goals in 45 minutes to tie the score. balance. Even though they didn’t seem to have any offensive arguments for that throughout the first half (Bruges ended up with no shots on target against Benfica’s 11).
The only bad news was Otamendi’s yellow card, which means he is suspended for the first leg of the quarter-finals.. Maybe that’s why Roger Schmidt didn’t step down as captain for the second half. Nor Florentino, Gonçalo Ramos, João Mário. They all came back for the second half and the fans thanked them for being linked to two more goals.
Benfica scored the third goal in yet another fine move from the team’s top scorer, cementing their status in yesterday’s game. Number 88 reached 23 goals at the time. In the last 20 years, only one Portuguese player has scored more goals with an eagle on his chest in a season (Pizzi, 30 goals in 2019-20).
The game entered the management phase and with the many interruptions inherent in the many substitutions. It gave the idea that if the Reds insisted more, they could expand the scoreboard and look for the biggest defeat in Luz. And they did that from 11 meters. Naively (or desperately) Babakar brought down Gilberto in the penalty area and João Mário made it 4-0 from the penalty spot. It was the midfielder’s twentieth goal at the time, his sixth in the Champions League.
There were still 15 minutes to play and David Neres made it 5-0 shortly after coming on, but the match only ended when Bjorn Meijer scored the honorary goal for Bruges, rewarding the good Champions League he did until he found the steamroller had become the Benfica of the German Schmidt.
SEE THE GOALS
1-0 Rafael (Benfica)
2-0 Goncalo Ramos (Benfica)
3-0 Goncalo Ramos (Benfica)
4-0 Joao Mario (Benfica)
5-0 David Neres (Benfica)
5-1 Bjorn Meijer (Club Bruges)
Source: DN
