Benfic Amateur Star: Eagles visit Reverse without margin of error

O Benfica moves, on Sunday night, to the José Gomes Stadium to face the Amadora Star, in play of the 11th day of the I League. Currently five points away from the leader FC Porto, the eagles of Marco Silva visit Reboleira without margin of error, and then there will be a competitive pause for the appointments of the selections. 

On the other side there will be a Star guided by Pepa, a former player with past Benfica, but who goes through a particularly troubled period in the season: four losses in the last five games. 

The motivation of the tricolor will thus be maximum, because the history of confrontations shows that the task of Benfica in Reboleira has been quite complicated. In recent times, the incarnates have won, but always by the minimum margin.

António Nobre, referee of the Leiria Football Association, was appointed by the Arbitration Council of the Portuguese Football Federation to whistle the Amadora-Benfica Star, being assisted by Pedro Mota and Francisco Pereira. Bruno Vieira will play the role of 4th referee, while in the videoarithm (VAR) will be Tiago Martins and the assistant (AVAR) Cátia Tavares.

Follow, later and live, the main incidences of this match in Sports to Minute. 

Coaches in direct speech 

Pepa 

Strategy to stop Benfica: “ What we really want is to enjoy the game, compete and hold on to what we control. Benfica is very well, with many options. We have to be very intelligent and grind perfection. For that, we have to be on our best day. The week was very good, intense and competitive. These are good signs of the response the group wants to give. We have not achieved results, but we have a brutal delivery.”.

Edges per file: “ We know we have things to fix. We talk a lot about offensive effectiveness, but it has failed the defensive effectiveness and details that cost points. We need to improve on that. Tomorrow [Sunday], we will be very tested, but we are here to overcome ourselves. We really want to look at wins, but at the end of the game, what I want most is for all the players to come out with a clear conscience that we gave everything for the three points.”. 

Marco Silva

Closed calendar: “It’s a reality from the last stop to now. We'll close the cycle differently, but that's what it is. Last Monday, you said we were going to have a different week, with three days in seven games. It's what's ahead. We tried not to overload some players, and we've been doing it the way we can. Let us hope that the team is fresh enough to give the answer we have to give, which is to fight for the three points, knowing that it will be very difficult”. 

What to expect from the Star: “ I expect a difficult game, in a traditionally difficult field, against a well-organized team, struggling in the way of playing, with and without ball, which makes the organization one of the pillars to be competitive. The season started very well in terms of results. The last ones weren't the most positive, but you can tell the base is there. Sometimes detail makes all the difference and is decisive. We don't look at the last moment, but at the entire time of the Star and its capacity. Regardless of what we may or may not force the opponent to do, it is a tough team that plays at home and will have the support of its supporters and will therefore want to respond. We must be at our best”. 

Last results

Amateur Star: DDVDD

Benfica: VVVVVVV

Last elevens

Amateur Star: Leo Linck, Max Scholze, Luan Patrick, Stefan Leković, Lucas Mincarelli, Kevin Jansson, Santiago Serra, Abraham Marcus, Lovro Zvonarek, Ianis Stoica, Leandro Antonetti

Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Daniel Banjaqui, Alessandro Circati, Tomás Araújo, Souffian El Karouani, Georgiy Sudakov, Manu Silva, Rafa Silva, Claudio Echeverri, Andreas Schjelderup, Jhon Durán

Absent

Amateur Star: Robinho and Jeremy Arevalo (damaged); Eddy Doué and Beni Souza (internal questions).

Benfica: Leandro Barreiro and Umeh (damaged).