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Benfica were pre-game favourites based on form but everything that could go wrong for the home team did in a 2-0 defeat to Inter Milan.
When the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal draws pitted Benfica against Inter Milan, many thought it would aid the smooth continuation of the Portuguese team’s fairytale run.
Benfica had finished top of a group that had Paris Saint Germain and Juventus and comfortably blew past Club Brugge in the round of 16, 7-1 on aggregate to enter the last eight still unbeaten in the competition.
Inter on the other hand scraped by in the group stages, finishing a distant second behind Bayern Munich and only just getting the better of Porto in the round of 16 by a lone goal over two legs.
So how then did Inter Milan who were winless in six games preceding this fixture beat a Benfica side that had only lost twice the entire season? The magic of the UEFA Champions League.
Benfica 0-2 Inter Milan
Roger Schmidt’s men actually started the game on the front foot as expected and perhaps the outcome could have been different had Andre Onana not saved Rafa Silva’s snapshot in the 15th minute.
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But beyond that half chance, Benfica struggled to create which is rather uncharacteristic given what we know about this team but also a major cause for concern as they had similar issues in the game before this, a 2-1 loss at home to Porto.
That makes it slightly more difficult to write off this result against Inter Milan as a one-off, back-to-back defeats at Estadio Da Luz where they had been previously unbeaten the entire season is a worrying reality.
The Inter daggers in the second half cut deep especially because the victorious team did not necessarily play well either, it was mostly down to the brilliance of Alessandro Bastoni.
The 23-year-old left centre-back majestically stepped out of defence to affect the game twice with two beautiful crosses from similar areas of the pitch.
The first in the 51st minute to pick out the head of Nicolo Barella with ridiculous accuracy as the 5′ 8″ midfielder is not exactly an easy target for crosses into the box.
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And again in the 77th minute when the same gorgeous cross found the head of Denzel Dumfries this time but the Dutch defender lacked Barella’s finishing touch. Inter would win a penalty shortly after that in the same sequence of events to decide the game.
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Those were the Nerazzuri’s only chances on the night from nine total shots (three fewer than Benfica) but the fact is they took theirs while Benfica did not.
Less than five minutes after conceding the first, Benfica had a glorious chance to equalise but Joao Mario’s cross came in too fast for Alex Grimaldo to sort his feet out and an epic goalmouth scramble ensued which involved Goncalo Ramos but the ball still somehow stayed out of the net.
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Speaking of Goncalo Ramos, he had what was perhaps the best chance of the game in the fourth minute of additional after being played through on goal but his effort was uncharacteristically tame and unbecoming of a man who has already scored 25 goals this season.
A goal would not have changed the result for Benfica but it would have made the difficult night easier to digest and renew hope for the Eagles ahead of the second leg in Italy where they will now be chasing a two-goal deficit.
Benfica’s problems were self-inflicted
Benfica learnt a hard lesson in the most difficult way possible, the UEFA Champions League does not always favour the best teams and one bad night could ruin months of good work.
As easy as it would be to simply charge this result to the game and keep it moving, the home side also have some responsibility to take for this disappointing result.
Roger Schmidt got it wrong tactically, Benfica’s lack of width was a major reason they could not create much. It is no coincidence that they got significantly better after David Neres replaced Florentino Luis in the 64th minute.
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That substitution allowed a change in shape as Neres is a more traditional winger in contrast to Fredrik Aursnes and Joao Mario who were deployed in wide areas but typically prefer to operate centrally.
Schmidt has probably now paid for that mistake with Benfica’s progress in the Champions League and this one would hurt for a while except in the unlikely event that they manage to turn it around in the second leg.
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Such is the way of the Champions League, the higher you get, the thinner the air, pressure is significantly higher at the stage of the competition and experience rather than form is a more efficient currency of passage.
Inter Milan had that experience and Benfica simply did not which is why Simone Inzaghi’s men have one leg in the semi-finals while Benfica’s stellar Champions League campaign is about to come to an abrupt end.
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