Sérgio Krithinas blasts 3 Benfica players: far from inspired | OneFootball

Benfica beat Gil Vicente 3-1 at the Estádio da Luz in a match counting for the sixth round of the Liga Portugal Betclic. Leandro Barreiro, Rafa and Andreas Schjelderup started, but they were subdued, something Sérgio Krithinas commented on.

"Few shots? It is an excellent indicator of the lack of good shooting positions. Gil Vicente deserved a lot of credit for the way they defended, often with a back five, compact in the central block, preventing the runs of Barreiro, Rafa and Schjelderup, all of them very uninspired when it came to solving things individually. Prestianni, always fully switched on, showed his best version playing on the left," he wrote in his column for Record.

The analyst commented on João Palhinha's introduction in the second half. "Although that was not the only factor behind Benfica's poor display, it is obvious that Palhinha gives the team more than Enzo Barrenechea: a wider range of movement, greater ability to press high, and even aerial play. His drive was noticeable as soon as he came on, but at a time when nervousness was already on the pitch as well. For lack of a better explanation, perhaps Marco Silva was thinking about the matches against Milan and Porto."

In the end, Sérgio Krithinas highlighted the impact of Claudio Echeverri. "Marco Silva chose to bring on players with very different profiles from those he had on the pitch — Aursnes in place of Barreiro, Lukebakio in place of Rafa, Echeverri as a No. 10. The young Argentine made his debut and left excellent signs, both in the aggressive way he chased the ball and in his decision-making in tight spaces", he concluded.

With this victory, Benfica made it five straight league wins, picking up three more points and cutting the gap to leaders Porto. The Eagles now have 16 points, two more than Sporting (14) and two fewer than the Dragons (18).

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