Tuesday, August 9, 2022 at 9:37 PM• Wessel Antes • Last update: 21:40

After the big home win last week (4-1) Roger Schmidt was also able to win the return of Benfica against Midtjylland with 1-3, so that he can focus on the last Play-off in the preliminary round of the Champions League. Benfica will compete against the winner of the game between Sturm Graz and Dynamo Kiev, which started an hour later on Tuesday-evening and has not yet been completed.

Benfica had already secured a 4-1 lead in the first leg in Lisbon, so that the Portuguese could travel to Denmark for the game on Tuesday evening without too much tension. Where David Neres was still important for Benfica in the game last week with two assists, the Brazilian was missing in Schmidt’s match selection today. The German head coach has received a lot of praise from the Portuguese media so far. His team was also by far the dominant party in the game against Midtjylland.

After 23 minutes, Benfica managed to convert the many ball possession into a goal. After striker Goncalo Ramos first killed a big chance, midfielder Enzo Fernández was the end station of a great attack five minutes later. On a pass from Ramos, he tapped the ball out of the air after a brilliant run, past goalkeeper Elías Rafn Ólafsson. After that, Benfica keeper Odysseas Vlachodimos was able to positively distinguish himself on an attempt by Brazilian Paulinho, as a result of which the Portuguese went into halftime with a 0-1 lead.

After the break, Midtjylland was the dominant party for a while and the Danes forced three corner kicks. Brian Priske’s team was unable to score from this, after which Benfica’s first corner kick was hit in the second half. After a rehearsed corner, it was the youthful striker Henrique Araújo who nodded the ball well for the 0-2. Midtjylland saved the honor with a goal from the alert Pione Sisto, who made it 1-2 after a header on the crossbar in the rebound. Just before time, Diogo Goncalves determined the final score at 1-3 with a wonderful distance shot.