A great Grimaldo explains the Benfica premiere

Former Barça player Alejandro Grimaldo, with a great goal and an assist, lit the way for Benfica (2-0) on Tuesday in their Champions League group stage debut against Maccabi Haifa, in a match where the ‘eagles’ took their time to show their favoritism on the scoreboard.

Benfica settled the match at the start of the second half, with Rafa Silva’s goal from Grimaldo’s pass and a fine goal by the Valencian winger’s squad.

The victory allowed Benfica to add their first three points in the Champions League, where they face a tough group that also includes PSG and Juventus.

The team led by Roger Schmidt, who reached the group stage through the qualification stage, debuted in the competition with what seemed to be the simplest match, against a rival that also had to overcome several knockout ties to reach the top competition in Europe.

Many victories for Benfica

Benfica also arrived with high motivation after their entire victory, nine, at the beginning of the season, but despite dominating the game from the start, it was difficult for them to scare the Israelis.

Grimaldo tried it in the 16th minute with a free kick but the ball went high, and the first clear chance for the Reds didn’t come until half an hour later, with a shot by Rafa saved by the goalkeeper.

Maccabi had some setbacks, such as an injury to midfielder Muhammad that forced him to make a change after 30 minutes, but the Israelis went from less to more and came to give warn the ‘eagles’ on the early discount.

After a break they gave another scare, with a chance from Pierrot who ended up with Vlachodimos on the ground to receive medical help.

Grimaldo broke the match

Just when the game seemed to be in trouble for Benfica, the Portuguese, led by Grimaldo, unblocked the situation.

In the 50th minute, the Valencian received on the left and launched a cross into the center of the area, where Rafa got ahead of the centre-backs and with a gentle touch sent the ball into the back of the net.

Maccabi still could not recover from the blow five minutes later, Grimaldo received another ball, advanced a few meters and from outside the area took a shell that went into the top corner, promising to be one of the goal of the workday. .

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From then on, the Haifa team was less afraid and their absence on the scoreboard was compounded by another injury, Podgoreanu, when he was not on the pitch for 15 minutes.

Enzo Fernandez is 3-0

Benfica, although they were unable to overcome their rival, got the third in the 90th minute through a shot by Argentine Enzo Fernández, this season’s star signing.

With the victory, the Lisbon side top the group, tied with PSG, before visiting Juventus next week.