The truth of today is not that of tomorrow.
If Roger Schmidt doubted it, he learned it the hard way.
The German coach managed an almost faultless, ten days ago, for his first season on the bench of Benfica.
Then the SLB chained three defeats, including one in the quarter-final first leg of the Champions League, at home against Inter Milan (0-2), which pushed it to the edge of the precipice.
Beaten in the league by its rival and runner-up, Porto (1-2), then at the modest Chaves (1-0), Benfica, leader of Liga Bwin, fears collapsing in a wet squib at the end of the season.
To discover
Champions League fixtures and results
These are post-traumatic stress disorders that cross the spine of Lisbon supporters.
In 2020, Benfica, leaders of the championship until March, crossed a range of 10 matches for only 2 victories, almost unheard of in more than 100 years of history, and had let slip the title in favor of Porto. ... who also beat him in the Portuguese Cup final (1-2).
“9 and a half brilliant months”, and Benfica is falling apart
In 2013, this same Porto defeated him on the penultimate day, by one goal after extra time (2-1), to snatch the title from him.
In the process, the SLB lost in the Europa League final against Chelsea (1-2) then in the Portuguese Cup final against Guimarães (2-1).
From dream to nightmare.
Roger Schmidt is going through a first and violent crisis at Benfica.
RODRIGO ANTUNES / PANORAMIC
With passion, the zones of turbulence are all the more agitated.
In Lisbon, we do not understand what is happening to Benfica, who had lost only one of their first 45 meetings this season.
Who had corrected Juventus and stood up to PSG in the Champions League.
"
We are missing something that we have shown almost all season: to be creative in the last third of the pitch
", thinks Roger Schmidt, who diagnoses a problem in "
the last pass
".
“
We cannot forget the 9 and a half brilliant months we have had,
” defended Benfica president and former player Rui Costa on Monday, helpless in the face of the law of the playoffs.
In Chaves, the Eagles largely dominated to crack on a failed control from their captain, Nicolas Otamendi, who offered the goal ball to Issah Abass, at the very end of the game (90th + 4).
Grimaldo attacked at Lisbon airport
Cruel.
This did not prevent the supporters from whistling their players.
And that, not everyone digests it the same way.
While his teammates were going to applaud, despite everything, the supporters in the stands of Chaves, Alex Grimaldo urged them to go directly to the locker room.
Without thanks for those who had traveled the 400 kilometers that separate the two cities.
Two players, Lucas Verissimo and Morato, imitated him.
Grimaldo, a 27-year-old left-back, has become an astonishing pariah in Lisbon.
It is not insignificant.
The Spaniard is at the end of his contract and is asking for a salary of around €3m/year to extend.
Benfica, who don't laugh with money, refuse to offer him the club's second biggest contract (behind Julian Draxler).
The player trained at Barça is perhaps having the best season of his career and knows how to court.
But no question that a player is above the club in Lisbon.
"
Grimaldo, you've been there for eight years, respect Benfica
", challenged a supporter at the airport, before boarding for Milan on Tuesday.
It is a club that does not focus so much on Europe as on the Portuguese league.
Julio César, former Benfica goalkeeper.
In this increasingly anxiety-provoking climate, Roger Schmidt navigates on sight.
The German coach, extolled recently, was named as the main responsible for the Benfica results crisis by a poll in the newspaper
A Bola
.
Of more than 44,000 voters, 34% pointed to Schmidt, 29% the players.
A feat at Inter this Wednesday (9 p.m.) would reverse the trend.
But Benfica, "
it's a club that does not focus so much on Europe as on the Portuguese championship
", underlined Julio César, former goalkeeper passed by Inter and SLB, at the microphone of
Amazon Prime Video
.
Among the Eagles, the Champions League often takes on the appearance of a bonus alongside national prestige.
And the two defeats in the league have increased the pressure: the Lisbon club is still 4 points ahead of Porto and has six games to play.
On the program, a trip to the neighbor and sworn enemy, Sporting (May 21), and the reception of Braga (May 7) which had inflicted its first and heavy defeat on December 30 (0-3).
So many elements that nourish, at Benfica, the fear of losing everything.
