Last season’s premier league flight was followed by a false start – but Roger Schmidt remained surprisingly calm despite the unsuccessful start in Benfica Lisbon.
“It’s part of football to accept the history of this game, to look forward and to show a good reaction,” said Schmidt after the 0:2 (0:1) in the Champions League against RB Salzburg.
He was “unhappy” with the result, but the German coach was satisfied with the way his team presented themselves when they were outnumbered.
“I’m proud of them,” said Schmidt, who led Benfica to the quarter-finals last season.
Things didn’t go well for the Portuguese champions from the start on Wednesday evening. Schmidt recorded two penalties at the start against his team. Karim Konate missed the first (3′), the second was converted by Roko Simic (15′) for the guests from Salzburg, who were now in the majority after a red card for Benfica’s defender Antonio Silva – Silva had cleared the ball with his hand on the line. In the second round, Oscar Gloukh (51st) increased for RB.
“In my opinion we showed mentality. The way we played after that, it looked like we had eleven players. I think we created a lot of chances,” said Schmidt.
Lisbon’s other opponents in preliminary group D are Real Sociedad San Sebastián and Inter Milan, who drew 1-1 in the parallel game. On October 3rd there will be a repeat of last year’s quarter-finals in Milan.