Benfika is under fire, Roger Schmidt: "I agree that the expectations from us are different"
Rival Maccabi Haifa in the opening game of the champions on Tuesday, barely defeated the tiny Vizla: "With the exception of Ners, everyone played below their level"
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03/09/2022
Saturday, September 03, 2022, 08:38
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Summary: Benfica - Wisla 1:2 (Sport1)
Maccabi Haifa receives Benfica Lisbon just in time, at least that's how it seems based on Benfica's last games that last night (Friday) beat tiny Wisla 1:2 in a crazy game that was decided by Joao Mario's penalty 12 minutes into extra time.
Benfica actually trailed for 75 minutes in the home game brought up to Friday night so the team could properly prepare for the Champions League, but needed a heroic turnaround that began with David Ners' 76th-minute goal.
While the attack is still functioning, Roger Schmidt's defense is in trouble - the Brazilian stopper Lucas Varissimo is injured, as is his Brazilian friend Joao Victor, and so 18-year-old Antonio Silva, who played mainly in the Eagles' reserve team last season, started alongside Otamendi.
John Brooks who joined from Wolfsburg is not a partner, but may play against the Israeli champions on Tuesday evening.
The winning goal came after over 100 minutes.
Joao Mario (Photo: GettyImages, PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA)
"With the exception of a magical moment by Ners, everyone else was below their normal level," this morning in "Record" about Benfica's performance, and in "OJOGO" the headline was similar: "Ners managed to ignite Joao Mario and heal on the way to victory."
The brakeman Nicolas Otamendi tweeted after the team maintained a perfect record in the league: "The game ends only after the referee blows his whistle to finish."
Joao Mario also wrote on social networks: "We live and play for moments like this."
The staff members and players of Benfica, which was also missing midfielder Julian Draxler from Paris Saint-Germain yesterday, were concerned at the end of the game mainly with the penalty that went to the team and was not whistled.
However, when coach Schmidt was asked about the poor performance, he said: "At halftime we talked about what we had to change and do. We didn't play fast enough, the first touch wasn't good. We weren't patient. In the second half we showed that we can look different and scored twice, but I I agree that it was a different game than what was expected, we got into less situations than usual. We are an unpredictable team and I still think we played good football, even if we had difficulties today.
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