He Benfica is curdling an awesome season and much of the blame lies joao mario, one of the surprises of European football. The Portuguese, like a good wine, has improved over the years and is living his best moment at the 30. This course registers practically the same goals that he managed to score in the previous eight seasons. With 23 goals between all competitions y top scorer in the domestic championship with 17 goals as a midfielder, stands out as one of the stars of the ‘eagles’.
He is exploiting an unprecedented facet to date, uncovering himself as an arriving midfielder and one of Roger Schmidt’s great weapons. Adding the eight previous seasons he signed 27 goalsa figure that can easily be exceeded taking into account the great pace of this campaign. In the last duel of the Lisbon team, against Vitória Guimarães, they scored a brace (5-1).
His goalscoring ability is also having an effect on the Champions. Already in the quarterfinals against one of his previous teams, Inter Milan, added six so many and they only surpass him Erling Haaland (10), Mo Salah (8) y Kylian Mbappe (7).
Portugal, Italy, England and Russia
In the 2014/15 season he managed to score seven goals with the Sporting CP (five in the league and two in the Portuguese Cup), the same number he achieved in the 2015/16 academic year (six in the league and another in the Europa League).
Then he went to Inter de Milan (2016/17) in exchange of 44.78 million euros. Despite being the great bet of the ‘nerazurri’, he did not fall on his feet in Italy and only scored four goals in Serie A (one of them in the 2018/19 season). In between, in the 2017/18 campaign, he had a small ‘erasmus’ in England, on loan, where he managed to sign two goals in the Premier League at the hands of West Ham.
Still owned by Inter, he chained more assignments again. One in the Lokomotiv de Moscow (2019/20), in which he added a goal in the Russian league. and another in the Sporting CP (2020/21), where he again reaped very discreet records in terms of goals (two goals).
In 2021 he changed his home in Lisbon and after separating from the Italian club he signed a free contract for the Benfica. The 2021/22 course was adapted and he only scored three goals in the domestic tournament. However, the story is being very different in the current season.
Leaders in Portugal and alive in the Champions League
Roger Schmidt has hit the key to get the most out of the capabilities of joao mario. And with him those of the whole team. In the quarterfinals of the Champions League for the second consecutive year and Notable leaders in the Portuguese league (ten points behind Porto), the Lisbon team is on its way to completing a season that will go down in history.
If they overcome the tie against Inter Milan, they would reach the semifinals of the tournament, against Naples or Milan. They have not won the competition since the 1961/62 season. For now, there is a license to dream at the Estadio da Luz.
