Red card against Fenerbahçe leaves Benfica with a talking point | OneFootball

Benfica drew 0-0 (0-0) in their trip to Turkey, against Fenerbahçe, in the first leg of the play-off for access to the group stage of the Champions League. The game was marked by the red card shown to Florentino Luís, which raises a curious statistic: of the last eight expulsions of the Reds, six occurred in international competitions.

Florentino Luís was launched in the starting eleven of Bruno Lage in a surprise bet, with the aim of closing the Benfica midfield and preventing Fenerbahçe from creating danger through the central zones of the field. The Luso-Angolan midfielder replaced Ivanovic and didn't have the best game, being expelled in the second half after seeing the second yellow card.

The red card shown to Florentino, in addition to being unprecedented, raised a curious fact. It is that of the last eight expulsions of Benfica, only two occurred in national competitions. Otamendi and Aursnes were the two players who were sent off in games counting for the Portuguese championship.

The remaining six expulsions were, in order, Florentino Luís (Champions League), Prestianni (Club World Cup), Belotti (Club World Cup), Arthur Cabral (Champions League) and António Silva (Champions League), twice, against Salzburg and Inter Milan.

The next duel of the tie is scheduled for next August 27, Wednesday, at the Estádio da Luz. Without Florentino Luís, Benfica will receive Fenerbahçe with the score at 0-0 and only needs to win the game to guarantee a spot in the Champions League group stage.

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