Benfica’s Rafa Silva was voted best player of the week in the Champions League, in a vote in which he received more votes than Marc Cucurella (Chelsea), Fikayo Tomori (AC Milan) and Thomas Müller (Bayern Munich).
The Benfica winger was the player with the most votes in the first week of the Champions League round of 16 second leg, which saw Benfica beat Club Brugge 5-1 at home after already winning 2-0, and qualified for the quarterfinals.
On Tuesday, in the reception to the Belgians, Rafa Silva scored the first goal, in the 38th minute, in a triumph that was followed by goals from Gonçalo Ramos (45+2 and 57), João Mário (71, from the penalty spot) and David Neres (77), while Meijer turned down for the Belgians at 87.
At the end of the match, the Benfica winger was also named the best player of the match played at Estádio da Luz, but insisted on handing the trophy to Gonçalo Ramos, who had scored a ‘double’.
Rafa is the second Benfica player to be honored as the best of the week, after Norway’s Fredrik Aursnes was picked in the first leg of the Round of 16 in the week the Reds played, while Vinicius Júnior (Real Madrid) was in the as a sequel to.
Mehdi Taremi, from FC Porto, was previously chosen in the week in which the fifth round of the group stage was played, in which the Iranian scored twice in the Dragons’ defeat against Club Brugge (4-0), and for the award of striker André Silva on matchday three, also with a brace in Leipzig’s win over Celtic (3-1).
Other honors included Robert Lewandowski (FC Barcelona), in the first round, Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City), in the second, Heung-Min Son (Tottenham), in the fourth, and Oliver Giroud (AC Milan), in the sixth .
Source: DN
