UEFA Champions League 2025/26 Season

[m4r1o]

Benfica isn't a small team that you said they can't win Real Madrid, and besides Real Madrid currently is not in their best of form this season so the probability of them winning is even there compared to before. Any team that made it to the champions League and even to the round of 16 can't be underestimated, and I'm not doing so when it comes to Benfica and Real Madrid game.

I would say above all that the coach who coaches Benfica is a person with enormous experience and enormous strategy, both on and off the pitch.
Let's not beat around the bush, he are achieving these results thanks to him, precisely because he knows how to strategically deploy a team to get them to give their all.

[Not your key not your BTC]

Benfica isn't a small team that you said they can't win Real Madrid, and besides Real Madrid currently is not in their best of form this season so the probability of them winning is even there compared to before. Any team that made it to the champions League and even to the round of 16 can't be underestimated, and I'm not doing so when it comes to Benfica and Real Madrid game.

I would say above all that the coach who coaches Benfica is a person with enormous experience and enormous strategy, both on and off the pitch.
Let's not beat around the bush, he are achieving these results thanks to him, precisely because he knows how to strategically deploy a team to get them to give their all.

No one doubts Mourinho's abilities, as he is one of the best coaches in the world. In fact, every club Mourinho coaches has won trophies. Benfica is likely to win the first leg of the Champions League against Real Madrid because, in addition to playing at home, Mourinho is certainly a significant factor. He has been able to improve Benfica's performance and understands Real Madrid's game, having previously coached there.

[BlackBoss_]

No one doubts Mourinho's abilities, as he is one of the best coaches in the world. In fact, every club Mourinho coaches has won trophies. Benfica is likely to win the first leg of the Champions League against Real Madrid because, in addition to playing at home, Mourinho is certainly a significant factor. He has been able to improve Benfica's performance and understands Real Madrid's game, having previously coached there.

The first leg will be hosted at Benfica stadium and they will have another advantage when Real Madrid won't have best player resource for that match by red cards (Asencio and Rodrygo). With experience of Jose Mourinho, Benfica will very likely be able take advantage of these things and turn them to a win at their home stadium then can play very defensive at Bernabeu stadium in a second leg.

Arbeloa is a young coach while it seems he does not have great management talent like Xabi Alonso and he will have very little chance of winning against Jose Mourinho in tactical fight between head coaches. He will have to rely to his star players for beating Jose Mourinho and Benfica but I am not optimistic with Arbeloa and Real Madrid's chance at all.

Remember in first meeting between Jose Mourinho and Xabi Alonso in UEFA Europa League semi finals, in a first season of Xabi Alonso with Bayer Leverkusen, he lost to Jose Mourinho and AS Roma. If Xabi Alonso failed, Arbeloa will have less chance to make something different and beat Jose Mourinho even he has many star players in Real Madrid.

[Mame89]

Benfica isn't a small team that you said they can't win Real Madrid, and besides Real Madrid currently is not in their best of form this season so the probability of them winning is even there compared to before. Any team that made it to the champions League and even to the round of 16 can't be underestimated, and I'm not doing so when it comes to Benfica and Real Madrid game.

I would say above all that the coach who coaches Benfica is a person with enormous experience and enormous strategy, both on and off the pitch.
Let's not beat around the bush, he are achieving these results thanks to him, precisely because he knows how to strategically deploy a team to get them to give their all.

No one doubts Mourinho's abilities, as he is one of the best coaches in the world. In fact, every club Mourinho coaches has won trophies. Benfica is likely to win the first leg of the Champions League against Real Madrid because, in addition to playing at home, Mourinho is certainly a significant factor. He has been able to improve Benfica's performance and understands Real Madrid's game, having previously coached there.

Mourinho is indeed a genius coach and there's no doubt about that, especially when the two teams met in the group stage which resulted in a crushing defeat for Real Madrid. Mourinho genius was that he knew that winning alone wouldn't be enough. He knew that Real Madrid players would continue to chase goals in the final minutes, so Mourinho ordered his goalkeeper to go up to score. That goal was crucial because it secured their place in the play-offs.

Now that the two teams are meeting again, I believe Benfica won't be able to beat Real Madrid this time. While Benfica may have a great coach, Real Madrid has the UCL DNA and a star squad capable of delivering when the team needs a win. So, I'm still favoring Real Madrid to advance to the round of 16 even though Benfica beat them in their previous match. Real Madrid is a team that is smart at evaluating what happened previously and they will not allow Benfica to beat them a second time let alone a third time.

[len01]

No one doubts Mourinho's abilities, as he is one of the best coaches in the world. In fact, every club Mourinho coaches has won trophies. Benfica is likely to win the first leg of the Champions League against Real Madrid because, in addition to playing at home, Mourinho is certainly a significant factor. He has been able to improve Benfica's performance and understands Real Madrid's game, having previously coached there.

Even though I don’t want Madrid to lose the first leg, I still agree with your view on this matter. Mourinho really knows Madrid’s playing pattern inside out, and that’s exactly why a loss or even a draw wouldn’t be surprising. His understanding of their system could be a big advantage for Benfica. Unless Arbeloa can fully read whatever tactics and strategy Mourinho prepares, that’s probably the only way to break Benfica’s confidence. But let’s be honest, that sounds quite unlikely.

For the first leg, my only hope is that if Madrid do lose, the aggregate deficit won’t be too big. As long as the gap is manageable, they still have a solid chance to make a comeback in the second leg and eliminate Benfica.

[cande86]

Records are meant to be broken and when a player is good like mbappe there is no doubt that whatever records that is kept will eventually have the time for it to be broken. With the way he has been playing shows that he is no doubt the excellent player that he is and with time coming there would be no chance for most of the records that the two legends hold.

And for the penalty aspect, I don't think teams are just awarded penalties if they didn't force out the tackle from the opponent.

exactly, when you say that records are made to be broken and Mbappe certainly does his part, i think that not in many years will he be one of the best of all, obviously penalties are necessary to have the possibility of scoring many more goals, but the decisions when they are awarded are not always right!

[Chilwell]

Benfica isn't a small team that you said they can't win Real Madrid, and besides Real Madrid currently is not in their best of form this season so the probability of them winning is even there compared to before. Any team that made it to the champions League and even to the round of 16 can't be underestimated, and I'm not doing so when it comes to Benfica and Real Madrid game.

I would say above all that the coach who coaches Benfica is a person with enormous experience and enormous strategy, both on and off the pitch.
Let's not beat around the bush, he are achieving these results thanks to him, precisely because he knows how to strategically deploy a team to get them to give their all.

No one doubts Mourinho's abilities, as he is one of the best coaches in the world. In fact, every club Mourinho coaches has won trophies. Benfica is likely to win the first leg of the Champions League against Real Madrid because, in addition to playing at home, Mourinho is certainly a significant factor. He has been able to improve Benfica's performance and understands Real Madrid's game, having previously coached there.

I keep on asking myself why people are still surprised that Benfica defeated Real Madrid, Mourinho had coached Real Madrid and he know how they play and even though he was not there anymore, he still knows their weak points. He also know how to beat them so for him to win that particular match, it shouldn't be a surprise to us because he always find his way most especially when it's comes to Champions League because he is very good in that competition.

Despite Mourinho was the coach of benfica, at the beginning I don't take them serious since their performance at the early stage of competition is not that strong, I've learned a lot in this particular match, i think everything should play every match as final to avoid this kind of disappointment.