Alexandre Pereira slams Benfica day one: only topless player photos | OneFootball

Benfica’s squad returned to training this Thursday, June 25, with their focus already set on the first official match of the season, scheduled for July 23 against St. Gallen in Switzerland. The event was not very high-profile because of the Club, according to Alexandre Pereira.

"Apparently embarrassed at having to start the season so early, Benfica gave up on putting personalities forward to speak on the first day of the rest of its life", he began by saying in his opinion piece for the newspaper A BOLA entitled "Benfica is pretending it isn’t here."

The journalist from the same media outlet doubled down on his opinion: "With access barred to outside and independent reporters, lest they do harm to anyone or take something away from Seixal, it only sent out a few repetitive photos of shirtless players undergoing medical exams. It doesn’t matter whether the smiles are more or less mechanical — for what it is, that’s good enough", he said.

Alexandre Pereira also criticized the fact that Marco Silva did not have an image of himself published by Benfica. "As for the new coach, the expected anchor of hope and repository of wishes and affection in this fresh start, not even a photo, not a word, a smile, a wave. Zero", it can be read.

Finally, the journalist went even further in judging the Eagles’ "disappearance." "Ever since it began to be felt that Mourinho was going to leave and everything would go back to square one, Benfica has been pretending it isn’t here. Between silences and diversionary tactics, the days went by. Before long the matches will start, and it will no longer be possible to pretend no one is here", he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.