Mário Branco taunts Sporting, Benfica official angers fans | OneFootball

Following the draw for the Champions League playoff round for access to the round of 16, held on the morning of this Friday, January 30, Mário Branco, Benfica's general director, spoke about the possibility of facing the Lions in the competition and referred to the Alvalade club as "Sporting de Lisboa."

"We want to be in the round of 16 with Manchester City or Sporting de Lisboa," said the Benfica official. On social media, there were several comments condemning his words: "Mr. Mário Branco, as a Portuguese, knows very well that the club's name is not Sporting de Lisboa" or "It's not surprising coming from someone who is suspended for telling a referee: 'You are a f****** disgrace! I'm going to destroy you, you and the VAR.'"

Sporting will now have to wait until the draw on February 27 to find out which opponent will be among the "best 16" of the old continent, which will then come from this quartet: Benfica (24th place), Bodo/Glimt (23rd), Real Madrid (9th), or Inter Milan (10th).

With the victory over Athletic Bilbao (3-2), the team led by Rui Borges finished this stage of the competition in seventh place in the standings, with 16 points earned in eight matches: five wins (Kairat, Marseille, Club Brugge, PSG, and Athletic Bilbao), one draw, and two losses.

The green and white emblem will be back on the pitch next Sunday, February 1, against Nacional, in a match for the 20th round of Liga Portugal Betclic. The game against the team led by Tiago Margarido will be played at 6:00 p.m. at Estádio José Alvalade.

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