What is called “El Clásico” in Spain – the encounter between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona – is called “O Clássico” in Portugal and is the title of FC Porto’s duel with Benfica Lisbon. Roger Schmidt had already gained some experience with delicate games of this kind in the course of his football life before he recently made an appearance with Benfica in the Drachenstadion in Porto – but he was able to state that the Portuguese national classic with an Ostwestfalenderby between SC Paderborn and Arminia Bielefeld is difficult to compare. It was extremely heated until the team from the capital was able to claim their 1-0 victory. The referee handed out a dozen yellow cards and sent off Porto’s Eustáquio and, after the match, coach Sergio Conceicao.
The only one who stayed cool as the referee’s dubious decisions piled up, according to the admiring tales of a senior Benfica official, was Benfica’s Germany coach.
While this manager may be the same manager who drew national attention a few years ago when he defiantly refused to comply with a referee’s sending off, Roger Schmidt is no longer the confrontational individual he was when he was at Bayer Leverkusen in early 2016 was. When he had to leave the club a year later, he didn’t have the best reputation in public because of his stubborn nature, only Rudi Völler never let anything bad come to him.
Schmidt, who was born in Kierspe in the Sauerland, has made a conspicuous arc to the Bundesliga and the football theater at home since leaving Leverkusen. First he went to China, then to the Netherlands, and finally to Portugal. People from the football business say that he turned down the various offers from the Bundesliga mainly because he wanted to keep his distance from the hype of the league in this country.
Now Schmidt, 55, is a big topic again, not only in Portugal, where he works with spectacular success, and in Germany, where he naturally attracts attention, but on the entire football continent. Unbeaten with Benfica in five months, he has played 22 games since taking over the side in the summer, recording 19 wins and three draws, one in the domestic league and two against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League. In the 6-1 win in Haifa on Wednesday evening, he and his team managed to win the group at the last moment – and proof that the away goals rule still exists despite the supposed abolition: Benfica left PSG behind in the table because they had two goals away had achieved more. A bola then proclaimed the next “epic night”, records another Portuguese trade magazine said: “The Eagle delivers another football festival.” The eagle is Benfica’s heraldic animal.
The balance is the result of “100 percent Schmidt,” says a leading member of the club
While Schmidt praised his team in English in unctuous words (“If you play six rounds at this level, you deserve to win the group”), Lisbon veteran Antonio Pacheco found that the German teacher had the Adler-Elf through the conveying his boisterous style “brought a mental shock”.
The club is of course happy and happy about the development that goes hand in hand with the commitment of Schmidt, who was already engaged in the spring. The balance is the result of “100 percent Schmidt,” says a leading member of the club, “we’re all really excited.” At the same time, there is a bit of alarm in Lisbon, because it is said that large foreign clubs have long since become aware of Roger Schmidt.
The Portuguese league has improved its collective level, which was clearly demonstrated during the preliminary round of the Champions League – apart from Benfica, FC Porto also finished as group winners – but at the same time it is still an export league. In England alone, 24 Portuguese are employed, Benfica in particular lives from trade. The sale of Darwin Nunez to Liverpool brought in more than 80 million euros in the summer. The fact that Schmidt will be weak with the first multimillion-dollar offer from the Premier League can still be ruled out. He’s already shown himself to be a man of honor in such cases at PSV Eindhoven.