Roger Schmidt, Benfica’s coach, praised the attitude of his players but regretted their exit from the Champions League quarterfinals after a 3-3 draw at San Siro against Inter, who won the first leg in Da Luz (0-2). .
In his analysis of the match, the German coach criticized the arbitration team led by the Spaniard Carlos Del Cerro Grande. referring to a penalty by Lautaro Martínez on Fredrik Aursnes with 1-1 on the scoreboard.
“It already happened in Lisbon, the referees’ decisions also influenced this tie. There was a penalty, just like last week. We had some bad luck with that,” criticized Schmidt.
Despite this, Schmidt was left on the positive side: “We did a great Champions League, 14 games with just one loss, unfortunately in a very important game last week. In that game we didn’t play with the same intensity, if we had played like today we would have had a different result, but that’s football. I liked what I saw here.”
A lesson for the league championship
Schmidt was pleased with the performance of his players at San Siro. “The team believed, fought, didn’t give up, not even when we conceded 3-1. It’s important to draw and you have to accept it, congratulations to Inter.”, highlighted the German with an eye on the imminent future since Benfica saw their lead in the Portuguese championship reduced to 4 points after two consecutive defeats.
“We have to use this performance to help us in our last six league games,” asked Schmidt. “Inter scored in their first attack, it was not easy for the team to keep believing. No more grudges, we represented Benfica in a very good way at an international level, not only in the match this but throughout the season”.
Source: La Verdad
I’m Rose Herman and I work as an author for Today Times Live. My expertise lies in writing about sports, a passion of mine that has been with me since childhood. As part of my job, I provide comprehensive coverage on everything from football to tennis to golf.
