Benfica Champions League Win: Thrashing of Barcelos

Benfica continues to be victorious this season after a third consecutive victory in Group B of the Champions League, which adds to the series of eight successes in a row in the national championship. This Thursday night was a gala event at the Pavilhão da Luz, with an artistically impressive rout of European champions OC Barcelos (6-1), in which five goals were scored in six explosive minutes. The eagles take isolated leadership of the pool, after Sporting’s draw in A Coruña (2-2).

However, anyone who had only watched the first five minutes of the game would certainly not suspect such an uneven outcome. When João Rodrigues opened the scoring (6′), with a deflection from close range, he did so against the grain, opposing the result to the personalized entry and superiority of the Minho team. The equalizing goal, practically after a ball to the center, by Carlitos, still restored justice to the scorer, but it didn’t take long to disappear as the clock ticked down.

The Barcelona team’s momentum dropped and Benfica took control of the game in search of the second goal, which only came in the 20th minute, by Roberto di Benedetto, when, from a reduced angle, he made the ball pass under the body of goalkeeper Guillem Torrent.

Shortly after (23′), Zé Miranda misses a penalty, but redeems himself in the next play, scoring the Reds’ third. A hard blow to Barcelos, but not as harsh as the two goals scored in the last minute of the first half and the first of the second, respectively, João Rodrigues and Zé Miranda, both scoring twice. Benfica reached their fifth goal and with 24 minutes to play they had already decided the duel in their favor.

In the rest that was played, only the total control of the operations by the eagles, who even reached the sixth goal (46′), the hat trick by João Rodrigues.

Edu Castro, Benfica coach, analyzed the game: «OC Barcelos started the game very well, but we scored the first goal. They equalized in the next play, then played some very good minutes, and Conti was fantastic in our goal. It cost us, we couldn’t feel comfortable in the game, until we scored the second goal. The break came, the start of the 2nd half, and we managed the result better. We must look at what we can do better in each game, regardless of the result, and not make mistakes. Analyze what we are doing well and what we can do better.”

João Rodrigues was quite satisfied with the performance and the result: «It was an excellent performance from Benfica in line with what we have been doing. An important victory. In the Champions League, in this group stage, it is important not to give in at home. And so far we have 3 games, 3 wins. It’s important that we continue like this. There were moments in the 1st half when the forces were quite equal, but as soon as we made it 2-1, we controlled the game perfectly. I think we blamed a lot for the goal we conceded from OC Barcelos. We just scored 1-0, we conceded soon after and it took us a while to dominate the game. From the moment we made it 2-1, maybe we weren’t having a great game until then, but then we put on a great performance. A result that also gives us confidence.”

«It is important now to think about Sunday’s game, which will be very competitive, against SC Tomar, a rival that always gives us a lot of headaches. It’s a sign of work. It’s a sign that we are doing things well. But it is also a sign that the first defeat is coming. Sport is like that. We know we will lose someday. But we want that day to be as late as possible. We work to win every game. Learning about victories, which is sometimes not always easy, but we have had the humility to do it.”, concluded the Benfica forward.