Club Brugge vs Benfica - The Game That Nobody Watched
A match up of exciting European underdogs that quietly happened in the background
The return of Champions League football after the winter break is usually met with fanfare from football fans across the world, but this year the response was eerily quiet.
I think this is partly due to the amount of football we have had so far. Even if you stick to one league and the odd game that isn’t your team, you could be exhausted with a game every couple of days and a World Cup smack-bang in the middle of the season.
The plans from FIFA for even more football seem shortsighted, both from the spectators’ perspective and also for the players who will have to participate in all these games, but that is a conversation for another time.
But I believe the major reason for the lack of interest is because of the Premier League.
It used to be the case that league fixtures could not be scheduled on the same nights as Champions League matches to avoid the viewership being split, but last year UEFA ruled that this would be scrapped to help with fixture congestion after the COVID-19 pandemic (it’s likely this was continued this year due to the mid-season World Cup).
UEFA were likely hoping that the Champions League would have to compete with games like Brentford vs Norwich when they made the ruling, not a top-of-the-table clash between Manchester City vs Arsenal.
I know I exist in a social media bubble, but from my varied following and a browse of the trends tab on Twitter, it seemed like everybody was watching as Pep Guardiola met Mikel Arteta once again.
Those who weren’t were watching Chelsea vs Borussia Dortmund, offering their opinions on why Jude Bellingham isn’t worth £100m+ and why Mason Mount is the root of all evil.
But no one seemed to be watching the other Champions League match - Club Brugge vs Benfica.
It would be the hipster choice at the best of times and I know I’m embellishing a little by saying no one watched it, but it seemed that if you wanted any insight on the game, you’d be shouting into the void (Even I have to admit I only watched a replay of the game).
But I think we all missed out on a truly riveting match-up.
Benfica won the game 2-0 by the way. I can tell you that because my aim is not to recount to you a simple match report of what happened in Belgium; Joao Mario and David Neres scored and Brugge didn’t.
This match-up between Benfica and Club Brugge has been months in the making, and the road that led them to this game provides us with a lot more to talk about than the 90 minutes that were played on Wednesday night.
So with that in mind, I am going to try and sell you on watching the second leg by telling you why both teams are some of the most interesting outfits to watch in Europe this season, and I’m going to start with…
Club Brugge
Of the two, I’ll admit I know less about Club Brugge than Benfica. I’ve watched the odd league match and their Champions League games, but I have watched their opponents more over the past seven months.
However, they are definitely an interesting team to talk about for several reasons; embodying the true spirit of the underdog.
I’m not going to beat around the bush, but in the Belgian Pro League this season they sit fourth in the table on 42 points, 20 points behind league leaders Genk.
We’ll get to their form in the Champions League in a second, but their league form wasn’t good enough and it eventually led to head coach Carl Hoefkens being replaced… by Scott Parker.
I think Parker was unfortunate to be sacked by Bournemouth earlier this season; he had done incredibly well in the Championship and the team he had at his disposal did not receive the investment it needed in the summer.
Fast forward a few months after his departure and the south coast club has been taken over by flashy new American owners who splashed the cash on many exciting new players.
But he has a chance to try again abroad with Brugge. His start has been shaky; he has only lost one game in the league, but he has drawn five times and only won once. It should be noted that in only one of these games did Brugge fail to score
He obviously wants to be a success in Belgium and sees this as a unique opportunity (Parker became only the fifth English coach to manage a team in the Champions League knockouts since 2000 against Benfica). He told the Daily Telegraph:
“You know when you have that feeling? The opportunity was just a great one at a club that is used to winning and wants to win. I could only see it as me growing, me becoming even better, me taking myself out of situations which I am familiar with.
“In England, that is pretty rare. I just felt like from where I was in my career, I wanted something different. I liked the idea of moving abroad, I liked the idea of a different culture.”
At the moment Parker seems like an odd fit, both tactically and as a fish out of water, but the hope is that he will eventually find his feet at the Belgian club.
Of course, the 2-0 aggregate against him put his side on the back foot going into the second leg, but with the shackles off and goals needed this could be the necessary push needed for an exciting game.
And Brugge certainly have attacking talent at their disposal that can cause problems for Benfica.
Ferran Jutgla was one of the biggest ‘breakout stars’ of the group stage, scoring during Brugge’s 4-0 win against Porto at the Estadio do Dragao and more importantly their 2-0 win over Atletico Madrid.
The La Masia graduate was in scintillating form at the start of the season, scoring six goals and registering four assists in his first 10 games across the league and Champions League.
He fits the mould of a traditional number nine who likes to attack the spaces, both on the ground and aerially. He also possesses the speed and dribbling ability necessary to create space for himself when needed.
The issue is his goals have dried up since his hot streak at the start of the season. He has only scored one goal since October and has fallen out of favour since the appointment of Parker (that and he has missed a handful of games through injury).
However, he is a lot better than Roman Yaremchuk. Brugge spent €17m to bring him to the Jan Breydel stadium this summer and he has rewarded his new clubs with two goals in 19 games.
Tajon Buchanan, Andrea Skov Olsen and Kamal Sowah are all exciting options who add pace, energy and technical ability on the wings and personally, the young talent fans should watch out for is 19-year-old defender Bjorn Meijer.
Han Vanaken has been a consistent performer and longstanding member of the squad pulling the strings in midfield while Simon Mignolet provides little to no confidence between the sticks, but the real star of the show is Noa Lang.
His *ahem* abrasive personality aside, Lang is an exceptional talent who has been linked with a move away from Brugge over the past year, most notably to Arsenal and Leeds United. He told the publication HLN about the links:
"Believe me: Belgium will miss me when I'm gone. I gave your football colour. Next season you will pray that there will be a Noa Lang walking around in Belgium, who can also play football so well."
So yeah, he has a pretty big opinion of himself, and this ego leaks into his play, for better and for worse.
Despite being on the losing side against Benfica, Lang completed 12 dribbles against his opponent (at a completion rate of 80%). He went at the Portuguese defence relentlessly, but according to multiple sites, he failed to register a single shot on target or create a chance.
This may be due to the lack of a striker to aim at - Jutgla was only just coming back from injury, and on the teamsheet at least, Lang was listed as the striker (though he didn’t remain there) and therefore as the main attacking outlet.
But I think this is also due to the 23-year-old believing he is the main attraction; approaching the task with the mentality of ‘if he doesn’t do it all, who else can.’
Lang has the talent to play in a bigger league, but it is his temperament and mentality which raise the most question marks. It was what got him ejected from Ajax and it is probably why a lot of big clubs have been wary about bringing him in.
Brugge’s performance goes one of two ways against Benfica for me. Either Brugge musters a comeback and makes it an interesting game or Parker makes a massive mistake with his tactics, overcommits and allows Benfica to shine.
And let me tell you based on their form this season, Benfica are a team you should be paying attention to.
S.L. Benfica
When Benfica were drawn in a group with Paris Saint Germain and Juventus, nobody expected them to qualify for the knockout rounds of the Champions League, let alone top their group.
But under Roger Schmidt, Benfica has transformed from Europe’s talent factory into a team that actually can get the best out of the weapons it creates.
Schmidt joined in the summer from PSV Eindhoven and since then, Benfica has only lost one game in 30, winning 23. Many thought the departure of Darwin Nunez to Liverpool in the summer would hit them hard, but the manager’s new tactics mean they have hardly missed a beat.
The German manager’s style of football is focused on controlling the tempo and setting the intensity, so they play the game they want to. In an interview with The Guardian in 2016 (while coaching Bayer Leverkusen) he explained his philosophy:
“We’re happy when the game is intense, even against teams that are supposedly better than us, like Bayern Munich or Barcelona last season in the Champions League. We try and make them play our football, that’s what we demand of our opponents, and if it works we normally win the game.”
On offence, their combination plays allow them to work the ball around and patiently wait for opportunities to open up for them, but when necessary they can put their foot on the pedal and work the ball forward quickly to devastate the opponent in transition (this is also helped by their individual talents which we will discuss shortly).
On defence, however, is where they truly dominate their opponents. Schmidt is a disciple of Ralf Rangnick, having spent time with the Austrian manager at RB Salzburg. It was there that Schmidt stated that a ‘more extreme’ version of his brand of ‘gegenpressing’ was born.
Like Klopp’s heavy metal football, Schmidt does not want the ball to go near the defence if his team can help it. Benfica adopts a 4-4-2 formation out of possession and steps up to press their opposition high up the pitch.
The numbers they commit forward allow them to aggressively man-mark their opponents and turn over the ball quickly. If the opposition are able to get the ball further up the pitch, then the team drops back into a more compact version of their 4-4-2 formation, as it still allows them to limit the space.
But it’s not all about the tactics, football, as we know, isn’t played on paper (subtly looks at the camera and winks), Benfica have a talented squad that can execute Schmidt’s vision - one that blends youth and experience.
Of course, they have unfortunately lost Enzo Fernandez to Chelsea (though the €120m in their back pocket will do a lot to quell their tears) who was one of the standout stars in this team, but they have other pieces who fall on either end of the spectrum of experience.
Schmidt spoke about his squad in an interview with UEFA earlier this season, and namedropped two of his defence as the perfect example of the squad he has created:
“Our central-defensive partnership of Nico Otamendi and Antonio Silva is the reflection of our team: a player who came through the ranks of our academy and a player who already played for Manchester City and the Argentinian national team and who has achieved a lot. To bring all of them together is the challenge.”
Flanking Otamendi and Silva they have semi-experienced options in Alexander Bah and Grimaldo, but sitting in front of the backline is the 23-year-old Florentino Luis, who has come into his own this season as a reliable number six.
Rafa Silva and Joao Mario are among some of the veterans in the team and add class and maturity to Benfica’s attacking line.
Joao Mario in particular has impressed me this season. After breaking onto the scene at Sporting CP earlier in his career and earning a big money move, he failed to live up to expectations. However, after spending time in the wilderness at Inter Milan, West Ham United and Lokomotiv Moscow, he seems to have finally found his feet again at Benfica.
Benfica have also shown that they’re always willing to add more pieces to their squad as well. David Neres was brought in the summer and he has proved a deadly threat on the wing, especially in 1v1 scenarios, and in January the club further strengthened their left-hand side by bringing in rising star Andreas Schjelderup from FC Nordsjælland.
But the main success story this season for both Schmidt and Benfica has been Goncalo Ramos.
When Darwin Nunez left the club in the summer, many wondered where the club’s goals would come from. They did not expect Ramos to seamlessly step out of the supporting role and become the headline act.
In the league this season he has 12 goals in 16 games and though his goalscoring hasn’t translated into the Champions League, his link-up play and movement allow the rest of the team to find space and even score themselves.
Benfica are the favourites for the tie (that should have been obvious from the existing two-goal buffer from the first leg), but there is a real chance that with a favourable draw or even if they face one of the bigger teams, Roger Schmidt’s side can go far in the competition this season.
Overall, both sides have shown promise in the Champions League this season and embodied the true spirit of the underdog, but on the 7th of March one of these teams is going to have to make way for the other; and if that doesn’t sell you on watching the second leg then I don’t know what will.
Thanks for reading the first-ever paid instalment of Played on Paper if you enjoyed it, feel free to leave a comment and tell others about it! See you next time.