Benfica, who had already been eliminated from the tournament, blew a 3-0 half-time lead to finish with a 3-3 draw against Inter Milan. João Mário's hat-trick within the first 34 minutes was only good enough to give the Lisbon club a share of the points, as six minutes after the break Marko Arnautović reduced the gap before Davide Frattesi added another for Inter soon after. In the 72nd minute, veteran striker Alexis Sánchez equalized from the penalty spot following Nicolás Otamendi's foul on Inter substitute Marcus Thuram. Benfica's chances of victory were all but ended four minutes from the end of regulation time when they lost centre-back António Silva to a VAR-aided red card.
The reigning Primeira Liga champions, Benfica have established themselves as something of a Champions League overperformer in recent season. The Lisbon club have reached the tournament's quarterfinals in both of the past two seasons and have advanced from the group stage four times since the 2015-16 season - an impressive set of results given that this is a team which hasn't been battle-tested against truly elite teams domestically.
However, in some ways it was exactly that very lack of high-quality opposition which came back to haunt them against Inter. Despite having won nine of their first 11 league matches, Benfica play in the Primeira Liga, not in one of Europe's four major football leagues. Inter, on the other hand, have to play against Juventus, Napoli, and cross-town rivals AC Milan twice or more every season. While Sporting CP and Porto are no slouches themselves, they're certainly not up to the standard of the top teams from Italy, Germany, England, or Spain.
It's more than likely that a team from a stronger league would have held on to the large half-time lead that Benfica had instead of completely crumbling after the interval. There's something to be said about forging that "big-game mentality" in the furnace of a competitive domestic league. Though it may have been by no fault of their own, Benfica have not had the chance to do so - and that has been evident throughout this Champions League campaign.
When Benfica were drawn into Group D alongside Inter, Real Sociedad, and Red Bull Salzburg, many assumed that they would most likely qualify for the round of 16 in second place in the group. There was even an argument to be made that they had a puncher's chance of topping Group D. Instead, their draw against Inter has ended up being their only point of their campaign thus far. Now, Benfica must win their final group match against Salzburg to even finish third in the group and enter the Europa League.
The importance of playing in a highly competitive domestic league cannot be underestimated as far as Champions League performance is concerned. The prime example, of course, is Paris Saint-Germain. Despite possessing wealth far beyond that of even most other elite clubs and easing to the Ligue 1 title almost every year, PSG have never seriously threatened to win the Champions League apart from the outlier - the pandemic-afflicted 2019-20 season. The fact that in spite of their array of superstars and enormous amounts of money spent, PSG - by far the strongest team not playing in a major European league - find a way to blow it every year unless a freak world-changing event takes place (and even then they lost in the final), certainly says something.
Think of everything that was just mentioned about PSG and apply it to a club like Benfica - one which is still relatively competitive but doesn't have that kind of money. The growing skill gap between the top leagues and the rest is a major reason why we will almost certainly never again see a Champions League title go to a club outside those four powerhouse leagues.
While no one seriously believed that Benfica had a chance to win it all, their Champions League performance this season has nevertheless been tremendously underwhelming. It's a clear indictment of not only them, but the Primeira Liga and the rest of Europe's "lesser" leagues as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment