Benfica coach Lage labels Barcelona as Champions League contenders

Barcelona is a contender to win the Champions League because “it is a team with enormous quality, both in individual terms with fantastic players, like us, and then in collective terms,” said Benfica coach Bruno Lage.

In his opinion, there is a mixture of what is the 'Cules' culture, their DNA, “it is a team that likes to have possession,” he recalled, and the style of their coach, Hansi Flick, with a more direct game, stronger in pressing and in attacking transitions. “For this reason, they are a very competent opponent and we have to want this challenge with great ambition,” he remarked.

On whether he will adopt a special strategy for the match, Lage pointed out that for them it is important to understand how to play with the ball in their midfield and how to do it when they are in the offensive midfield, and “fundamentally”, how to create problems for a defensive line that plays very high. “That's what we did today, we prepared the team in that sense,” he said.

Benfica are 15th in the Champions League table after drawing against Bologna and need to beat Barcelona if they are to take an important step towards qualification.