Benfica are the darkest of Champions League horses, records have fallen and Diego Simeone and Matteo Guendouzi only went and played themselves.
Winners
Carlo Ancelotti
The most wins ever as a Champions League manager – and still younger than Chris Hughton and Tony Pulis.
Benfica
Béla Guttmann will be cursing his luck. Benfica are one of only two European teams who remain unbeaten across all competitions in 2022/23 – and they finished above the other in their group despite the obvious financial disparity.
Six different players scored those crucial goals against Maccabi Haifa to tease a more favourable draw for Benfica, whose name might ordinarily have been welcomed out of the hat by some teams, but not this season.
Roger Schmidt took over a good team in the summer and has made them great. Three of the starters on Wednesday are 23 or younger, five more are aged between 24 and 28 and the other three are 29, 29 and 34. It is an admirable blend of youth and experience, knitted together with an insatiable drive for improvement.
In a year when no club has really laid down a daunting marker of intent yet, Benfica have a genuine chance to achieve something special.
Rico Lewis
Little over a year old when Karim Benzema became the youngest player to score on their full Champions League debut in December 2005, Rico Lewis set a new benchmark to inspire a Manchester City comeback.
Pep Guardiola noticed “something special” in the teenager during pre-season, but as ever the ability comes second to attitude. The manager praised the “intelligence” of his newest squad member first and foremost for a reason.
“Sometimes you think we’ll have to buy full-backs, knowing how expensive it is,” Guardiola added, in full knowledge of the amount Manchester City have invested in that position over the years. “But we can give someone from the academy the chance. That’s the dream. It is good for the economy of the club and we can rely on him.”
To have and embrace that responsibility at just 17 is astonishing. Lewis will remember that evening while lifting the Ballon d’Or in 2039.
Eintracht Frankfurt
Europa League semi-final in 2019. Europa League last 16 in 2020. Europa League winners in 2022. Champions League last 16 in 2022. It has been a remarkably satisfying trajectory for a club that continues to break even at worst in the transfer market – Randal Kolo Muani, scorer of the winner against Sporting, joined for free from Nantes in the summer –…
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