A new chapter for Benfica ended with an ultimately comfortable 4-1 victory over Santa Clara in Lisbon tonight as Bruno Lage celebrated his return to the Estádio da Luz dugout with a comeback win.
It could not have started worse though, as a crass Otamendi mistake was punished by Vinícius Lopes who put the visitors ahead after just 24 seconds.
But goals by debutant Kerem Aktürkoglu and Florentino Luís turned it around before half time. António Silva and Ángel Di María both found the net in the second half and Benfica could and should have scored more.
Tom Kundert reports from the Estádio da Luz.
It’s been a trying opening period to the season for Benfica fans. But they created a terrific atmosphere pre-match to welcome back new coach Bruno Lage as he attempts to cause an immediate impact and make the fans and everyone at the club forget the false start to the 2024/25 campaign.
Otamendi shocker
The undercurrent of hope and optimism brought by a fresh start was put to an early test as regards its sustainability. After 24 seconds of the match Santa Clara took a shock lead. Sidney Lima played a long ball forward, Benfica captain Otamendi made a complete mess of his intended interception and Vinícius Lopes was clean through, the Brazilian forward saying thank you very much as he lobbed the ball over the stranded Anatoliy Trubin.
Benfica took a while to recover from the punch to the stomach. Di María and Rollheiser tried their luck but failed to trouble Santa Clara goalkeeper Gabriel Batista, Pavlidis made a dangerous run but was crowded out as he pulled the trigger and the home supporters were getting increasingly agitated.
Santa Clara, on the other hand, were starting to pass the ball and retain possession with more confidence, although Batista had to be alert when he cut out a promising Benfica attack with a sliding tackle on Rollheiser.
Quickfire double
But in six minutes the game was turned on its head as Benfica suddenly started to click. The comeback was triggered by a superb bit of opportunism by Aktürkoglu, who marked his debut with a clever and unorthodox finish to divert a chipped pass from his countryman Kökçü past the surprised Batista. A goal made in Turkey.
The goal injected life into the crowd and belief into the team and Bruno Lage further whipped up the supporters on the sidelines, vigorously motioning with his arms for the fans to make more noise.
And the roof came off when Benfica scored their second goal in the 34th minute to take the lead. Di María swung over a typically menacing cross with his left foot from the right wing, that Otamendi headed back across goal for Florentino to dive and head home from close range.
The increasingly influential Kökçü almost scored a spectacular third, shooting powerfully and narrowly over the bar on the turn.
Santa Clara had been almost non-existent as an attacking force but nearly grabbed an equaliser on the stroke of half time. A well-worked counter-attack saw Vinícius tee up Gabriel Silva, the young winger’s shot from outside the area beating Trubin but bouncing off the outside of the post.
There was still time for Aktürkoglu to again show his eye for goal, the new signing needing just a few inches space and an instance of time to get off a dangerous shot that Batista palmed over the bar.
HT Benfica 2-1 Santa Clara
The second half could not have started better for Benfica, with centre-back António Silva thumping a header into the back of the net from Kökçü’s corner.
The goal knocked the stuffing out of the islanders and simultaneously allowed Benfica’s players to relax and start playing more carefree flowing football.
Di María special
On 58 minutes Di María gave another demonstration of his pure class. A searching ball from Alexander Bah sent the Argentine World Cup winner racing down the right flank, with Santa Clara goalkeeper Batista not sure whether to race out to try and intercept the ball or run back to the goal-line. He ended up doing neither, with Di María needing no second invitation to lift a sumptuous lob over his head and into the net.
Ricardinho almost pulled a goal back straight away for Santa Clara, his snapshot testing Trubin’s reflexes with Benfica’s Ukrainian goalkeeper responding well.
Late chances go begging
With no doubts about where the three points were heading, both teams made a series of substitutions, and two of Benfica’s must still be wondering how they did not score. Zeki Amdouni (83’) and Andreas Schjelderup (88’) both missed golden opportunities to open their Benfica account, the Swiss international blazing over the bar and the young Norwegian failing to beat Batista when clean through 15 yards out.
Another substitute Artur Cabral forced Batista into a reaction save, before Amdouni was unlucky not to make up for his miss as he sent a superb free kick crashing onto the crossbar. It’s early days under Lage, but the coach and the fans will be hoping Benfica can build on the return of the feel-good factor.
Analysis: Lage the anti-Schmidt
Roger Schmidt had been a dead man walking for months at Benfica, with president Rui Costa seemingly the only person in Lisbon unable to see it.
Some have speculated that Bruno Lage was not Costa’s first choice to succeed the German, but tonight he made a positive start to his second spell in charge of Portugal’s biggest club. With time for only a couple of training sessions with the full squad owing to the international break, it was unreasonable to expect Benfica to play with any great cohesion. Nevertheless, after a poor opening 25 minutes, the Eagles put on a pleasing display and ran out easy winners against a team that had started the season strongly.
Bruno Lage makes his second "debut" as Benfica's head coach with a 4-1 win over Santa Clara. Photo: Arlindo Homem ©
An example of the breath of fresh air brought by Lage was the way he used his squad and made relatively early substitutions. Aktürkoglu was handed his debut, Rollheiser was given a rare start, while Amdouni (another debutant), Prestianni and Schjelderup were all given 20 minutes or more to show the 60,000+ crowd that they can play a part for Benfica this season. It could not have contrasted more to Schmidt, who more often than did not make his full quota of substitutions or when he did, had the infuriating habit of making them close to the 90-minute mark.
Indeed, with Benfica playing two games a week for the next few months and two more international breaks on the horizon, Lage will have to use the matches themselves as well as the sparse training sessions available to work on his ideas.
As for Santa Clara, this match served as a reality check. The Azorean team had earned plenty of plaudits for their early season form, but the ease with which Benfica swept them aside will have alerted Vasco Matos that making the step up from the second tier to the top flight may not be quite as trouble-free as initial indications suggested. With more ruthless finishing Santa Clara could have left the Portuguese capital having shipped 6 or 7 goals.
“Benfica’s victory is just, but I congratulate my players for the way they fought and the courage they showed and we will keep on the right track,” said Matos.
Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Alexander Bah, António Silva, Nicolás Otamendi, Álvaro Carreras, Florentino Luís, Benjamín Rollheiser (Zeki Amdouni, 67’), Orkun Kökçü (Leandro Barreiro, 81’), Ángel Di María (Gianluca Prestianni, 73’), Vangelis Pavlidis (Arthur Cabral, 81’), Kerem Aktürkoglu (Andreas Schjelderup, 73’)
Santa Clara: Gabriel Batista, Luís Rocha, Frederico Venâncio, Sidney Lima, Lucas Soares, Pedro Ferreira (Gustavo Klismahn, 62’), Adriano Firmino (Serginho, 84’), MT, Vinícius Lopes (Ricardinho, 46’), Alisson Safira (João Costa, 75’), Gabriel Silva (Matheus Pereira, 62’)
Goals:
[0-1] Vinícius Lopes, 1’
[1-1] Kerem Aktürkoglu, 27’
[2-1] Florentino Luís, 34’
[3-1] António Silva, 47’
[4-1] Ángel Di María, 58’
