The Benfica of trainer Roger Schmidt and attacker David Neres will play in the group stage of the Champions League this season. A 3-0 win was enough for the Portuguese, who did not let qualification for the billion-dollar ball be jeopardized for a moment. Neres excelled on the side of Benfica and thus ensured that, like former PSV coach Schmidt, he might be able to play against Ajax in the group stage. That should be determined by Thursday’s draw. Viktoria Plzen also celebrated.
Benfica already did excellent business last week in Poland, where the first leg against Dynamo Kyiv was played. It then won 0-2 and took that wide lead to the return, in which final placement for the group stage of the Champions League had to be enforced in its own Estádio da Luz. It seemed that Schmidt’s formation wanted to get the job done quickly, as it immediately took control. After Neres saw a bicycle kick being parried, Nicolás Otamendi headed in after half an hour: 1-0.
Even before halftime, Rafa Silva took advantage of a misunderstanding in the Ukrainian defense and with that 2-0 in his pocket it was already certain that Neres, Schmidt and Benfica could book the Champions League tickets. The only question was how big the defeat in Lisbon would be. Neres topped off his top match by calmly finishing eye-to-eye with Vitalij Bushcan to score the 3-0 and his first official Benfica goal, but Dynamo was spared more suffering.
GOAL BENFICA!
It goes very quickly in Lisbon: Benfica comes 3-0 via a wonderful goal from David Neres! Dinamo Kyiv must watch out that it does not become a monster score. #UCL pic.twitter.com/0RdEkQCoLu
— VTBL ? (@vtbl) August 23, 2022
Viktoria Plzen – FK Qarabag 2-1
Qarabag, who drew 0-0 last week, took a 0-1 lead in the 38th minute: Filip Ozobic shot the ball out of the air once behind goalkeeper Jindrich Stanek. In the second half, however, Viktoria Plzen turned the game around. First Jan Kopic equalized and fifteen minutes later Jan Kliment even put the 2-1 on the board: a high cross was returned to the Czech attacker, who outsmarted the Qarabag keeper with a simple foot movement. That was it, allowing Viktoria Plzen to prepare for the group stage of the Champions League. The Europa League remains for Qarabag.