Champions League: X-ray of the Benfica-Midtjylland match

With the pre-season over, it is time for Benfica, now under Roger Schmidt, to look ahead to the start of the competitive season. The first official match will take place at Estádio da Luz, on Tuesday, August 2, at 8 pm, against FC Midtjylland, in the 1st leg of the Champions League 3rd qualifying round.

At the end of the Eusébio Cup, against Newcastle (3-2), the German coach assured that the reds would be "prepared for the official matches". Well, the eagles' pre-season was intense and left good prospects. Triumphs in every match (Reading, 0-2; Nice, 3-0; Fulham, 1-5; Girona, 4-2; Newcastle, 3-2; and Amora FC, 3-1) suggest that Benfica will be competitive against the Danish team.

Midtjylland arrives at the clash at Luz with five official matches and the sacking of coach, Bo Henriksen, replaced by assistant coach Henrik Jensen on an interim basis. Despite having five official matches against none of the Glorioso, the results have been shaky.

In the Champions League, they overcame the Cypriots of AEK Larnaca in the penalty shootout (3-4), after a 1-all draw in both matches; in the Danish League, Midtjylland are provisionally in 3rd place in the table, with four points from three matches played. Two home matches, against Randers and Silkeborg, resulted in a 1-1 draw and a 1-3 defeat, respectively. In the last round, they thrashed Odense by 1-5.

Until now, the opponent of the eagles has played preferentially in 3x4x3, with the following starting XI: Olafsson, Dalsgaard, Sviatchennko, Juninho, Joel Andersson, Paulinho, Onyedika, Charles, Isaksen, Chilufya and Anders Dreyer.

It should be noted that UEFA has released the schedule for the 2nd leg of the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League, and the Midtjylland-Benfica match will be played on August 9 (Tuesday), at 6:45 pm Portuguese time, in Denmark.