Benfica manager Jose Mourinho has warned his players that Real Madrid will be dangerous opponents in their Champions League playoff on Tuesday as the “wounded” Spanish giants arrive in Lisbon nursing bruised pride.
The playoff first leg at the Estadio da Luz pits Benfica against a side still smarting from a chaotic 4-2 loss to the Portuguese club in last month’s league phase of the competition.
That defeat denied Real automatic passage to the last 16 in extraordinary fashion. With Benfica leading 3-2 but heading out, goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin went forward for a free kick and headed in a 98th-minute equaliser, sending Mourinho’s side through to the playoff round on goal difference.
Now the pair meet again, and Mourinho expects a backlash.
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“If beating Real once is difficult, imagine beating them twice or three times, which is probably what we will have to do. A big team that loses and is wounded is dangerous,” Moutinho told a press conference on Monday (Reuters).
“I know that feeling very well because it is something I have always known as I have been fortunate enough to only coach big teams throughout my career. Real Madrid’s motivation is not to eliminate Benfica but to win the Champions League. For our part, it is to win and to know very well what we did to win the last game.”
