Positive signs in the first exam in the Roger Schmidt era

Eagles defeat Reading, 2-0, in a friendly in England, showing clear superiority. Reinforcement Alexander Bah opened the scoring and assisted for the second goal.

After the first images in the open training session at Estádio da Luz, a week ago, the first pre-season test of the eagles showed a game model already with several principles of Roger Schmidt. The reds dominated Reading for most of the 90 minutes and won 2-0, with goals from Alexander Bah and Gil Dias, scored in the second half.

The German coach launched only one reinforcement at the beginning of the match, David Neres, but surprised with the choices of António Silva and Morato in the center of the defence. The eagles pressed very high from the start and several times recovered the ball in advanced areas of the field. And, with the exception of a few short periods, Benfica had more ball and control of the game in the first 45 minutes. Some clairvoyance was lacking in the last third to better define the three or four opportunities created. The individual highlights of the first half go to Florentino, very well at the positional and assertive level with regard to passes. The midfielder paired up with Weigl in the center and the pair left good indications.