Benfica move into Champions League group stage

Benfica will join Sporting and FC Porto in the Champions League group stage this season after holding off a persistent PSV to a scoreless draw in their second leg encounter. Benfica went down to ten men at the 32nd minute mark of the game after Lucas Verissimo received his second yellow card in what was a bit of a questionable decision but it turned the game on it's head with Benfica providing little to no attack the rest of the way, but the club put on a superb defensive clinic with a little luck on the side.

Benfica will now receive around €37M from UEFA for qualifying for the group stage and are guaranteed six games in the Champions League to add more to that total. UEFA will pay out €3.28M for every group stage win and €1.09M for each draw in the competition. The qualification will also keep the club away from selling important pieces, unlike last season when their failure to make the group stage saw defender Ruben Dias depart before the summer transfer window closed.

Benfica will be placed in pot 3 for Thursday's group stage draw along with FC Porto, Ajax, RB Leipzig, Atalanta, Zenit and two of Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg, Besiktas or Dynamo Kiev depending on the results of tomorrow's final playoff games. A group of death featuring previous champions is very likely this season with the potential of a Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and AC Milan joining Benfica when the draw takes hold.

 

Benfica making mistake with Waldschmidt potential move

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.

Benfica with toe in Champions League group stage

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.