GSP Stadium, in Nicosia, receives, on Thursday night, the duel between the Cypriots of Omonia and Benfica, in a duel between two teams that have not yet lost in this single league phase of the Europa League.
© Getty Images
22/10/2026
by
News to Minutes
O GSP Stadium, in Nicosia, in Cyprus, receives, on Thursday night, the European duel between Omonia and Benfica, in departure that is valid for the third day of the single league phase of the Europa League and that puts forward two teams unbeatable in this race.
After the illuminating triumphs before AC Milan (2-0), Ruben Amorim, in Italy, and before the Scots of Celtic (4-1), in the Stadium of Light, the team commanded by Marco Silva travels to the capital of Cyprus to measure forces with a set that also managed to add two victories in so many other games in the race, against Celta and Celje.
One factor that might unbalance the balance in favor of Benfica is the fact that the Club of Light had a week's rest between the two European games. Omonia already tied on Monday with Olympiakos Nicosia, for the local championship.
It will be a European reunion between the two teams. Benfica met in September 1981 in the first round of the European Champions Club Cup, Omonia, Cyprus, in a two-way elimination round. He would eventually beat the Cypriots by 4-0.
The duel between Omonia and Benfica has an initial whistle scheduled for Thursday's 8 p.m. (Portugal Time) and will be whistled by an almost 100% Belgian arbitration team, composed of Jasper Vergoote, assistants Michele Seeldraeyers and Martijn Tiesters, fourth referee Kevin Van Damme and AVAR Bert Put. The only exception is the Italian Gianluca Aureliano, who will be at the helm of the VAR.
Coaches in direct speech
Henning Berg
Praises to Benfica: “ Now we will play with a team that is more of the Champions League, which historically has been one of the top three Portuguese teams and which last season won Real Madrid in the Champions League. So they are a top team, they have many good players, they have changed eight players against AC Milan and they have won anyway.”.
Omonia won't give up her philosophy of play: “ I think most of the championship games are the team that dominates and we have more possession of the ball. In Europe it is more balanced or we have less ball, but we know how to make transitions, but we also like to develop our ball game”
Marco Silva
Injuries complicate management: “I’ve thought about what we’re going to do tomorrow, regardless of having a few hours until the game and we can make some decisions, analyzing what’s best. The decisions are more or less made. There is one or another amendment that we can make... Just think, 48 hours ago, Leandro was in my head to play, and tomorrow, he won't play. It is not much good to make many drawings for the next games, because we can have news in the middle and get stuck the plan”.
Claudio Echeverri on eleven: “The game will begin tomorrow. It's been going very well, no matter how well it didn't go to the selection at that time, because it came from a pre-season where it barely competed. Those two and a half weeks, even having only seven players, turned out to be important to him, to improve his physical condition and understanding of how we want to play.”.
Risk of relaxation: “There is no way to be, first, the way we work. There's no permission for that. If I ever feel like it's happening, it's up to me not to let it happen. Sometimes it's not as easy to get into the players' heads as we want, but it's up to me, and nobody's given me signs of it, being fair to this working group. If we have to shake, once in a while, we also do it, and there is no need to do it”.
Last results
Omonia: V-V-V-V-E
Benfica: V-V-D-V-V
Last elevens
Omonia: Thomas Kaminski, Stefan Simic, Jure Balkovec, Senou Coulibaly, Jean-Kévin Duverne, Florin Tanase, Luuk Brouwers, Panagiotis Andreou, Ewandro, Jaden Montnor and Lois Diony.
Benfica: Anatoliy Trubin, Alexander Bah, Clément Lenglet, Tomás Araújo, Samuel Dahl, João Palhinha, Fredrik Aursnes, Dodi Lukebakio, Georgiy Sudakov, Gianluca Prestianni and Jhon Durán.
Absence
Omonia: Fotis Kitsos, Carel Eiting and David Akintola (injured).
Benfica: Daniel Banjaqui, Enzo Barrenechea, Leandro Barreiro, Jaden Umeh, Jakub Kamiński and Jhon Durán (injured)