Portuguese soccer
Roger Schmidt forms spectacular Benfica
Benfica’s coach Roger Schmidt has had an outstanding season with his team so far. photo
© Armando Franca/AP/dpa
Benfica Lisbon is not only one of the biggest surprises of the season in the Champions League. The club also dominates almost every opponent in the league. The reason: a German coach.
The Pep Guardiola story is now almost ten years old, but it still tells a lot about Roger Schmidt and his football. At the beginning of 2014, coach Schmidt and RB Salzburg met FC Bayern Munich and swept the Champions League winners 3-0.
It’s just a friendly defeat, but it still amazes the then Bayern coach Guardiola. He had “never experienced such aggressive offensive football,” said the amazed Spaniard. Meanwhile, Schmidt no longer works in Salzburg, but for Benfica Lisbon. And today his biggest rivals, like Sporting coach Rúben Amorim, say about him: Schmidt’s Benfica is Portugal’s best team in years.
This Schmidt sits in the press room of the training ground in Seixal. Portugal’s record champions train here, and this is where Schmidt created one of the biggest surprises in European club football. Before the eagerly awaited “Clássico” against FC Porto this Friday (7 p.m. / DAZN), Benfica leads the table with ten points ahead of their big rival. In almost twelve years, no team in Portugal has dominated the league by such a margin.
“O great Schmidt”
Including the three-point rule, only two teams in the almost 90-year history of the league have had more points after 26 match days than Benfica now (71). And almost more important: In the Champions League, the traditional club will play against Inter Milan from Tuesday to get into the semi-finals for the first time. In Lisbon, they attribute all of this to the work of the 56-year-old Westphalian, whom quite a few in the capital have long called “O grande Schmidt”.
So the great Schmidt is sitting on the podium of a narrow room on the other side of the Tagus River. Schmidt wears Benfica’s golden training shirt, he radiates this German seriousness even at the moment of great success, for which they appreciate him here. Even on this glorious spring day, he doesn’t give any spectacular answers. His footballing approach is all the more spectacular. Not only coach rivals like Amorim are impressed by the quick changeover football à la Schmidt. From the aggressiveness with which the opponents are attacked. From the speed with which you work towards scoring after winning the ball.
Benfica with impressive numbers
The numbers are impressive: no team has scored more goals in the league (67) than Benfica, and none have conceded fewer (14). In the premier class, the club from the Lisbon district of the same name took first place ahead of Juventus Turin and Paris Saint-Germain without defeat. Then FC Brugge was overrun in the round of 16. Benfica has reached the quarter-finals of the competition several times. But never so dominant. “We will chase titles,” Schmidt announced last Friday after extending his contract until 2026. “For me it was a clear decision to stay longer at Benfica.”
Because honestly, what more could you want as a coach? The trained mechanical engineer lives with his wife in one of the cities with the highest quality of life in Europe. Schmidt enjoys an appreciation in Lisbon that he has never experienced despite successful football with Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga. After years of sadness, after championship titles for Sporting and Porto, the “Benfiquistas” longed for a coach who would bring them success back. So President Rui Costa signed this Schmidt and at first the fans were amazed. Because they didn’t even know who it was.
“I didn’t know him before,” admitted captain and world champion Nicolás Otamendi recently. But the Argentinian was also quickly convinced. “He’s a coach with very clear ideas who gives the players a lot of confidence. The training is good too and he has personality.” And more importantly: Schmidt is successful. Another victory against Porto, it would be the eleventh in a row in the league, the championship would be as good as clear. Even if Schmidt didn’t want to know anything about it on Thursday, of course. Only when it is mathematically clear can he be congratulated, he said. They also appreciate him here for that. For his sincerity.