All eyes on Benfica – Santa Clara, worries over Otamendi and Richard Ríos | OneFootball

Still a week away from the meeting between Benfica and Santa Clara, Nicolás Otamendi and Richard Ríos are already starting to give Bruno Lage significant headaches. This is because, at a time when the coach from Setúbal is dealing with a major depletion of the squad, he knows that the two South American athletes risk missing the duel against the Azoreans.

The newspaper Record reports today, September 4, that both the central defender and the midfielder will be serving their national teams for an extended period, and simultaneously, both will undertake long journeys back to Portugal. Based on this, it is certain to say that the two players will arrive just in time for the match against Santa Clara, scheduled for September 12.

After the first qualification commitment, the two players will participate in a second duel, which will take place in the early hours of September 10, Portuguese time, against Ecuador and Venezuela, respectively. The problem is that, even if they return immediately after the matches, both Otamendi and Ríos are subject to transatlantic flights, which will, in some way, increase the fatigue of the athletes in question.

Currently only training with seven players due to international commitments, Bruno Lage is expected to start receiving 'reinforcements' from next Monday, September 8. Additionally, two days later, it is expected that the coach from Setúbal will count on the arrivals of António Silva, Amar Dedic, Rafael Obrador, Andreas Schjelderup, João Veloso, and Gonçalo Oliveira, all of whom will play on the previous day, August 9.

However, in the case of the right-back, Bruno Lage is not very concerned if the player arrives in time for the match against the Azoreans, since the Bosnian will serve a suspension, after being sent off for accumulating yellow cards, in the match against Alverca, which ended with a victory for Benfica.

Break? It won't matter much. There are players playing on Wednesday [the 10th, cases of Otamendi and Ríos], and we have a game on Friday. Thank you.

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