St Gallen captain turns comedian and lays into Benfica | OneFootball

St. Gallen are still savoring their victory over Benfica (2-1) in the first leg of the Europa League second qualifying round. After the win against the Eagles, captain Lukas Görtler did not hide his excitement and even took the opportunity to fire a dig, recalling Benfica’s matches against Real Madrid.

"Against Real Madrid, we probably would have drawn," said the German midfielder in comments to Swiss outlet Watson, referring to Benfica’s defeat to Los Blancos. Although St. Gallen went into the tie as clear outsiders, Görtler insisted that belief in the dressing room was never lacking.

"Benfica didn’t lose a single league game last season, but football is still 11 against 11 for 90 minutes. Before the match we showed some modesty outwardly, but inside the dressing room we believed we could beat Benfica in one match, or maybe even in both," he said.

"Regardless of what happens next week, these moments stay forever with anyone connected to St. Gallen. Hats off to everyone who was here today. The stadium was incredible and we were incredible on the pitch. No one stood out above the others, because everyone ran, fought and won a large share of the individual duels. It was simply incredible," the captain concluded.

Tom Gaal, who scored the goal that gave St. Gallen the win, also revealed the message delivered by coach Enrico Maassen hours before the match, highlighting the confidence within the group: "In the video analysis, Enrico told us: 'We’ve been together for three years and we know exactly what we are capable of and what we need.' We wanted to press as hard as possible in the first fifteen minutes and bring the stadium into the game. We managed to do that very well," concluded the 25-year-old defender.

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