Saturday, August 21, 2021

Benfica making mistake with Waldschmidt potential move

Benfica Blog
Benfica are close to agreeing to a move away from the club of German striker Luca Waldschmidt with the reported destination looking to be Bundesliga club Wolfsburg. The move is said to be for €12M and could be announced next week after Benfica's Champions League playoff game against PSV. Benfica paid just last summer €15M for the 25 year old to join from German club Freiburg and looks to be a bad business deal with the club taking a hit of €3M on the negotiation.

It is said that Waldschmidt is looking for a move back to his homeland in search of regularly playing time and with Benfica stacked at the striker position, a few strikers are expected to move before the transfer window closes. Benfica currently have strikers Haris Seferovic and Rodrigo Pinho on the sidelines with injury but will see the return of Darwin Nunez after a 3 month lay off, throw in recently acquired striker Roman Yaremchuk with Goncalo Ramos and Carlos Vinicius and that is too many strikers for one or two positions in the starting eleven.

The 25 year old German International has appeared in 43 games across all competitions for Benfica, scoring 12 goals while setting up 4. Benfica would be wise to hang onto the left footed striker and look to capitalize on the older Seferovic who caught the eye of many clubs after his performance at this summers Euro tournament. While 2019-20 top scorer Carlos Vinicius also looks ready to depart the club again, as manager Jesus seems to have no interest in giving the Brazilian playing time. Benfica need to move strikers but Waldschmidt is the wrong one to move on from but what can you expect from a club that seems to have lost it's way.

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Benfica with toe in Champions League group stage

Benfica Blog
Benfica are a win or a draw away from qualifying for the Champions League group stage after their 2-1 first leg victory at the Estadio da Luz over Dutch side PSV Eindhoven earlier today. Benfica got a pair of first half goals from Rafa Silva and Julian Weigl before Cody Gakpo cut into the lead early into the second half but that would be as close as PSV would get in this game with the second leg set to take place next Tuesday in the Netherlands. Thanks to a rule change by UEFA this season, the away goal is not as important as previous seasons as any one goal loss would see the game go into additional time to decide the winner but a two goal loss would see Benfica miss out on the Champions League group stage for the second season in a row.


Tuesday, August 17, 2021

Benfica want to move on from striker Vinicius

Benfica Blog
Benfica are looking to find a place to move striker Carlos Vinicius before the transfer window closes and would prefer to cash in on the 26 year old as opposed to another loan move, that saw the striker spend last season in England with Tottenham. Vinicius is not one of manager Jorge Jesus' preferred choices up front and is behind a handful of strikers at the club.

Vinicius has been linked with German side Eintracht Frankfurt over the past couple of weeks and it has been reported that Frankfurt are intensifying their pursuit but are only open to a loan move at this time with a €25M option to buy at seasons end. Benfica are said to be pushing for a compulsory buy option at the same price tag based on the appearances made by Vinicius.