Mário Branco taunts Sporting, Benfica official angers fans | OneFootball

Following the draw for the playoff to access the round of 16 of the Champions League, held on the morning of this Friday, January 30, Mário Branco, general director of Benfica, 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 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're a f****** disgrace! I'm going to blow you up, 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 "16 best" 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 against Athletic Bilbao (3-2), the team led by Rui Borges finished this phase of the competition in seventh position on the leaderboard, with 16 points collected in eight matches: five wins (Kairat, Marseille, Club Brugge, PSG, and Athletic Bilbao), one draw, and two losses.

The green and white emblem returns to the field next Sunday, February 1, against Nacional, in a match related to the 20th round of the Liga Portugal Betclic. The match against the team led by Tiago Margarido will be played at 6:00 PM, at the José Alvalade Stadium.

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