26 days ago Bruno Lage was presented as the new coach of Benfica. Since then, the Portuguese has led the Lisbon team in five matches. He won them all. Today, Diego Simeone and his boys from Madrid fell under the speeding red roller, and this time they were as far away from the soldiers as from Lisbon to Lidzbark. All that was left of Atletico at the Estadio da Luz was a wet spot.
Bruno Lage, returning to Benfica, replaced Roger Schmidt. The Portuguese didn’t wait for anything, he immediately got to work. The effects are astonishing.
Today, Atletico lost its first match since May 19, when it lost to Osasuna 1-4 in the 37th round of the previous LaLiga season. A similar result was felt from the very beginning of the Portuguese-Spanish skirmish. We will not write that people from Madrid did not come to Lisbon. They came and embarrassed themselves terribly.
It was obvious that something was wrong in the first minutes of the match. With the first goal for Benfica, Madrid fans wiped their eyes for the umpteenth time that evening. And it was only the 13th minute. One could get the impression that when Kerem Akturkoglu was preparing to shoot, Axel Witsel and Marcos Llorente were several hundred meters apart. The fans didn’t believe it, Simeone didn’t believe it. After all, such mistakes happen. To everyone. Well, but not his charges. Yet.
An early goal didn’t change anything. The Lisbon team still completely dominated their opponents in every element of the game. In every one. From set pieces, through counter-attacks, to positional attacks.
Before the second half, Simeone was the first to appear on the pitch. Cholo looked like a guy who knew what he was doing and expected to see the results of his work in a moment. The Argentine ordered a triple substitution. Koke, Rodrigo de Paul and Antoine Griezmann remained in the locker room. In came: Alexander Sorloth, Conor Gallagher and Javier Serrano, who has more in common with Atletico’s reserves. That is, specifics.
Did it work? Yes, but completely opposite to what Cholo probably planned. Just five minutes into the second half, Gallagher gave the hosts a penalty kick, which Angel Di Maria converted into a goal. A quarter of an hour before the end, Alexander Bah added the third goal, and the final humiliation of the guests was completed by Akturkoglu’s compatriot, Orkun Kokcu. In the so-called meantime, the fun continued. Of course, this is fun that only half of the participants enjoy. Benfica’s players repeatedly ridiculed Atletico’s players, and the last quarter of an hour seemed to break all the rules. know-howwhich probably do not allow such brutal treatment of guests.
It’s very possible that Cholo Simeone and his team would like to forget about tonight very quickly. Unfortunately, it is even more likely that it will come back as a nightmare on more than one night. It was Atletico’s worst match in many, many years. And a standing ovation for Benfica.
Benfica – Atletico Madrid 4-0 (1-0)
Akturkoglu 13′, Di Maria 52′ (k.), Bah 75′, Kokcu 84′ (k.)
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