Benfica 0 Man Utd 1: Marcus Rashford exploits callow goalkeeper in workmanlike victory
This might have once been the kind of game that the brittle Manchester United teams of the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era would have failed to win, and it did not take Jose Mourinho long to go on the attack afterwards when there was even the hint of a doubt about his methods in recent days.
It was almost as if the United manager was waiting for the criticism, so enthusiastically did he charge onto the offensive after his side won their third straight Champions League tie with a goal gifted to them by the 18-year-old Benfica goalkeeper Mile Svilar.
This was a game that dragged at times as much as the goalless draw at Anfield had done and it seemed to be the reaction to that which Mourinho had been chewing on in the intervening four days.
He solemnly declared that defensive competence was “not a crime” and then berated the managers who complain about injured players – “they cry, they cry, they cry” – in what might have been a reference to Antonio Conte’s recent regrets about absent friends.
Naturally Mourinho, never one to miss an opportunity, then went on to list those he is missing with the usual dramatic flourish.
It was, all told, your vintage Mourinho belligerence, a man more or less having an argument with the critics he had assembled in his own head and requiring very little external encouragement to do so. The truth was somewhere in between – a professional performance, but a terrible game for entertainment against a limited Benfica side who were down to 10 men by the end when Luisao picked up a second booking in time added on.
There was no doubting the defining moment, however, that being the error by the rookie Svilar, the Belgian teenager who had made his senior debut for Benfica just four days earlier.
He somehow misjudged Marcus Rashford’s 65th minute free-kick and stumbled backwards over his goal-line still clutching the ball, an awful moment for the young man which was greeted more with sympathy than derision.
His fellow Belgian Romelu Lukaku gave Svilar a pep talk and a hug at full-time and Mourinho talked him up more than any other youngster in living memory.
He declared the 18-year-old “a phenomenon” who was not afraid to take risks, and that the teenager would either be the Benfica goalkeeper for years or would cost a “suitcase of money” to sign.
He also said that he told his team to target the teenager. It is hard to imagine Mourinho placing the same level of trust in such a young goalkeeper. It was a strange way to decide a European tie, and there was precious little enthusiasm among the local fans. It was quite a shock to see the Stadium of Light around half full and a general mood of indifference.
There may well have been goals elsewhere in the Champions League on Wednesday night but Mourinho seemed to know exactly what was required to beat the first club he managed, and his current United side delivered that performance.
United were led by Nemanja Matic, who has been crucial in midfield for Mourinho in recent weeks. As at Anfield, they were required to hold the line late in the game as Benfica came in search of the equaliser. The reality was that United on a good day at home would have been capable of sweeping this level of opposition aside.
Benfica vs Man Utd shots on goal
Mourinho made four changes from the side that had ground out a draw at Anfield and while this one showed a fraction more imagination, there was not much in it judging by a first half in which there was scarcely a chance. The Portuguese champions had already lost 2-1 to CSKA Moscow at home before they were thrashed 5-0 by Basel in Switzerland in the previous round of games. Their manager Rui Vitoria says the best is yet to come.
The inclusion of Juan Mata and Henrikh Mkhitaryan did not seem to help Mourinho’s team retain the ball. As well as Matic, another former Benfica man, Victor Lindelof, was in the centre of defence. Mourinho said that Eric Bailly will not be back for the game against Huddersfield on Saturday and that Phil Jones was not fit to start the game.
The goal came after Svilar had already made the sort of small errors that suggested he was not coping with demands of the game, punching a ball over the bar because his positioning was wrong. Perhaps Rashford had noticed the jitters of his fellow teenager before he took a free-kick from the left channel that had Svilar backtracking towards goal.
The teenage goalkeeper must have been unaware of his position because even punching or slapping the ball out would have been preferable to hanging on to it, which the Belgian did and consequently carried it back over the line and into the goal. Rashford came off before the end of the game with what Mourinho said was nothing more than an attack of the cramps, and after that Luisao picked up a second booking for a foul on United substitute Scott McTominay.
“Twelve matches, 10 victories, two draws, nine clean sheets,” Mourinho said, “we are not bad”. The alternative is the kind of unpredictability that affected United in his first season at the club, and Mourinho prefers them much more this way: well-organised, compact and very difficult to beat.
Good night
You have Sam Wallace's report from Lisbon above, as it happened below. Thanks for your company. Good night.
Steven Gerrard on Svilar
I don't know what the manager's doing. Picking [Svilar] is almost stitching him up. He's clearly talented but no way near ready to play in the Champions League.
Jose Mourinho speaks
We were very solid defensively. Sometinmes I think to be solid defensively is a crime but it is not a crime. We were solid and very good. I know how good the [goalkeeper] was and I told the players but we had a little strategy to take his space, to make him [nervous]. He risks a lot but only the very good take risks like that. We were in control. We knew Benfica pressure could not last. The intensity in the Premier League is greater than the Portuguese league, we knew they couldn't match the incredible defensive performance of Liverpool on Saturday. Nine points good for us, two games at home, [we need] one win - it's good for the club, not only for prestige but finance.
United players make a classy gesture
By going over to Mile Svilar (to give him his win bonus) to console him and tell him to keep his chin up. His mistake was to misjudge the flight, take a stride and half too far forward before he panicked and backpedalled quickly so he could catch it. When he realised he'd erred I think he should have punched it.
Time on ball (at full time)
Possession: Benfica vs Man Utd
Average touch positions (full time)
Average touch positions (full time)
Full time
Well, that was terrible as far as entertainment goes. Utter dross. But the kind of result Manchester United wanted and will accept.
90+4 min
Lukaku takes, smashes it and scons Filipe Augusto, on the end of the wall, in the face. he has to give his head a shake. The ball gows over to the right for a throw and during the afters as they challenge for the throw-in Lingard is booked for getting handy.
90+3 min
Luisao departs with a red card for a second yellow, complaining vociferously before he departs though he scythed McTominay down with a two-footed lunge. United free-kick 25 yards out.
Red card! Luisão sent off for Benfica
Felix Zwayer shows Luisão a second yellow card - he's off.
90+1 min
Scott McTominay on for Manchester United. Henrikh Mkhitaryan comes off.
90 min
Four more minutes of this to come. You lucky people.
89 min
Cervi races down left and earns a corner off Valencia. It's pulled back towards the spot, headed out and Zivkovic bundles a shot wide, slicing it miles off the perpendicular.
88 min
Lukaku beats Grimaldo down the right but the left-back gets back up to stab the ball out for a corner that comes to naught as United decline to commit players forward. We have what we hold etc.
87 min
Benfica bellow for a penalty for handball from a long throw but no dice.
84 min
Ruben Dias has a running jump volley from a corner. Should have headed it, says Steve McManaman, perhaps not seeing the big bandage draped round his noggin. Or rather he sees it but thinks you have to be tough enough to do it with a broken crown.
83 min
United second substitution: Lingard on for Mata. Cervi also comes on for Benfica, replacing Salvio.
82 min
Benfica string two passes together then lose the ball. United move it forward with Herrera to Martial via Lukaku but he loses it trying to slalom through the box.
81 min
Martial does Douglas with quick feet and a drop of the shoulder, skitters to the byline and shoots from a tight angle to test Svilar's resolve and he saves well. Corner, outswinger, and the keeper is off the hook.
79 min
Benfica corner, taken by Zivkovic from the right. Lukaku heads it away at the front post.
77 min
United corner and they don't test Svilar. The quality of mercy is not strain'd, it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven ... Needed a left-footed inswinger.
76 min
Rashford has to come off. It looks like there's something wring with his left thigh. He sat on the ground, shook his head and took out his shin pads. Anthony Martial eventually replaces him.
Time on ball (59 - 74 min)
Possession: Benfica vs Man Utd
74 min
Douglas picks up a wayward clearance from Matic, moves it out to Zivkovic who crosses too shallow. Jimenez sticks out a leg but can't do anything with it.
73 min
Zivkovic and Jonas combine but the Brazilian centre-forward can't keep his feet in the box.
71 min
Benfica sub: Jonas on, Diogo Goncalves off. Gone.
69 min
The goal alert (which is automatic) below says Rashford but in the name of all that's holy, it was an own goal even if we don't want to crush an 18-year-old kid. Who said it serves him right for the alice band? You're a harsh lot.
67 min
The keeper has been idiosyncratic and, let's be frank, dodgy all night. Rashford bent in a free-kick, the keeper took a step back and took it over the line and then extended his arms to try to rescue the situatio. The ref glances at his goalline watch and it confirms it was over. BT Sport has given it to Rashford but it was an own goal.
GOAL!
0-1. Marcus Rashford has opened the scoring for Man Utd.
Benfica 0 - 1 Man Utd (Marcus Rashford, 64 min)
Svilar scores an own goal
The keeper takes it over the line.
64 min
United free-kick after Douglas gives Mkhitaryan a jab in the face.
62 min
A third Rashford corner form the left is taken long and back to 25 yards from goal. Variety here was not appropriate. Benfica clear when Rashford's first touch when it comes back to him is too elastic.
60 min
United corner from the left. Rashford bends it towards goal with wicked pace and whip. Svilar with his red alice band, slaps and flaps it out. Rashford has another go and punches it over at the back post. Weird technique that because the ball was arrowing over the line and he left it very late to meet it.
Time on ball (45 - 60 min)
Possession: Benfica vs Man Utd
59 min
Matic lets fly from 40 yards and sends a crisp shot whistling over the bar. Benfica sub: Pizzi off, Zivkovic, the 'Messi of the Dinarides' comes on.
58 min
Lukaku takes the ball on the 18-yard line from a Rashford pass and is block-tackled before he can decide what he wants to do.
56 min
Benfica are going to make a change. The sub is stripped and gazing at an iPad and looking at the Xs and Os.
53 min
Benfica free-kick on the left 10 yards into the United half. Up go the tallest oaks in the Benfica arboretum but Smalling easily wins the header and United break. Diogo Goncalves puts both hands on Rashford;s shoulders and wrestles him to the turf to stop him flying through. Free kick on halfway and a booking.
51 min
The ball sits up nicely for Rashford 20 yards from goal and he can't resist having a roundhouse volley at it but cannot find the precision to go with the power. Forty seconds later he sends Douglas off to buy an evening paper and a pint of milk with a dip of the shoulder and bodyswerve. Yet his cutback after such scintillating preparatory work goes straight to Fejsa.
49 min
Matic, in the left-hals position, snaps into a tackle on Fejsa, wins the ball and tries to inject some pace into proceedings but ships his pass straight to Pizzi. Benfica stream into a quick counter, Salvio darts off up the right and flays in a dipping cross that Valencia has to volley away at the back post.
47 min
Lusiao catches Rashford offside again. He's like Bob McNab. (Ask your parentsgrandparents)
46 min
No changes. We kick off after that torpid first-half with the hope something emerges to keep the eyes open. Rashford storms down the left, pulls a pass back to 20 yards and Herrera smashes a shot wide.
Average touch positions (half time)
Average touch positions (half time)
Half time
'Well that was enthralling,' says Gary Lineker. Indeed. Things can only get bitter.
Time on ball (first half)
Possession: Benfica vs Man Utd
45+1 min
The ref allows us one more minute if this largely disappointing half and Blind is caught offside when bombing down the left. Luisao and his offside trap have snared United eight times this half.
45 min
Filipe Augusto follows suit, taking a long shot in when team-mates were better placed and nawsing it up completely.
43 min
Benfica appeal for a penalty when an early cross catches United on their heels. Jimenez misses the target and hits Lindelof on the back of the wrist in front of his backside as he turned away. A minute earlier Mkhitaryan had a sniff of space, flooded down the inside right channel to 22 yards and spooned a shot over the bar.
41 min
Booking for Antonio Valencia. Raul controls a long ball on his chest and Valencia, too close to him and vulnerable to being spun and burst past, sticks his palm in his face. Down goes Raul like a sack of spuds allowing Steve McManaman to accuse him of overreacting. He did but they all do. We all do. It's the game these days.
The shot count is similar
Benfica and Man Utd are evenly matched in attack so far - the vistors have fired in three shots to the hosts' two.
Benfica vs Man Utd shots on goal
39 min
United are forced back from the corner all the way into their own half but come gain quickly with Matic at the edge of the box dinking a pass to Lukaku down the inside-right channel. He has Mata screaming for it in a great position but the No9 does what No9s do, scorpion and frog style, shooting from a tight angle and bludgeoning it wide.
37 min
Mata again works an opportunity for himself on the edge of the box with a give and go but a challenge from Luisao takes the pace off his shot and sends it dribbling wide.
36 min
Man Utd get round the back on the left, Herrera's excellent pass finding Matic who drives into the box and spanks a low diagonal shot towards the bottom left corner. Svilar gets down feet first to block.
35 min
That's much better from United courtesy of some rat-a-tat-tat passing from Mata and a quicker tempo. When he gets the ball back on the edge of the box in pime position to shoot, Pizzi flies in to save the day.
Time on ball (15 - 30 min)
Possession: Benfica vs Man Utd
Man Utd hit back
Man Utd register their first shot, in response to two so far from Benfica.
Benfica vs Man Utd shots on goal
32 min
Lovely cross on the run from Blind out by the left corner flag. Rashford, who has switched wings, nips in from the right to augment Lukaku's presence in the box, arches his back to reach it and heads miles over from eight yards.
Average touch positions (30 min)
30 min
Jimenez has players to the left of him, jokers to the right, and toe-ends a left-foot shot about 20 yards wide from 35 yards out. What a waste, what a waste, what a WASTE.
28 min
Diogo Goncalves hares up the left and has a path opened up for him when Mata runs into Valencia. He seems to run out of belief and hits an early cross/shot through the six-yard box that De Gea saves with a dive to the left.
27 min
Luisao persuades the referee to agree with his interpretation that Rashford was offside. He spends 10 minutes a match with one arm in the air. Decent ball up the left for the United flyer to chase but he was just offside.
25 min
Raking cross from the right launched in by Douglas. Lindelof takes the sensible option and executes a back-headed clearance.
23 min
Very tight this - both defences looking solid, Benfica pressing aggressively by halfway.
21 min
United free-kick after Jimenez barrels into Smalling late and mid air as the United centre-half was leaping to make a headed clearance. Salvio was lurking on the right and ready to pounce.
19 min
Benfica have untold problems but lacking promise is not one of them. Both full-backs look tasty as does Ruben Dias and young Diogo Goncalves.
17 min
Svilar looks OK as far as fitness is concerned but flaps alarmingly at a Rashford corner, earning a reprieve because the referee thinks Lukaku was too rough in his challenge. 'Robust' is the current misnomer.
15 min
Good run from Grimaldo, skinning Valencia and crossing low through the box, about 12 yards from goal. Salvio runs towards the ball from the penalty spot and slashes a shot, with the ball just behind him, wide. Pizzi, behind him, would have had a virtual tap-in if he'd dummied it.
Time on ball (0 - 15 min)
Possession: Benfica vs Man Utd
Benfica and Man Utd yet to find a way through
Not much to do for either keeper at Estádio da Luz - Benfica and Man Utd keeping each other at bay.
Benfica vs Man Utd shots on goal
13 min
Svilar is down clutching his right hamstring but hasn't touched the ball for 10 minutes. Ruben Dias is also receiving ice pack treatment after clashing heads with Filipo Augusto. They wrap his head a la Paul Ince in Rome back in 1997, change his claret-streaked shirt and send him back on.
12 min
A pair of corners for Benfica, both well defended, the first by a zealous and committed Mkhitaryan slide tackle by the touchline.
11 min
Good tackle from Ruben Dias who sets Salvio off for a run up the right. He chips a cross towards the penalty spot where Raul meets it and has his header turned behind by Herrera. Not on target originally, I don't think.
9 min
Pizzi holds back Mkhitaryan, fearing he was about to wriggle past and storm on to Benfica's back four. United free-kick in their own half.
7 min
Lindelof strokes it about the back four until he knocks it up to Mata. Augusto snaps into him but he gets away, passes out to the right for Valencia who rolls it back for Matic. Mata holds his run, points and sprints down the inside-right channel but is flagged for offside. Not sure he was.
5 min
A first touch for Svilar who comes out of his goal to head it clear. Luisao is booked for poleaxing Mkhitaryan with a flap of the arm that cracks him on the chin. Mkhitaryan was trying to nip under his armpit. It might be only two-thirds full but it's noisy - a lesson for most English Premier League clubs.
4 min
But the ball's not sticking up front for United, as it did to Llorente for Spurs last night. Back come Benfica with Grimaldo getting to the byline up the left, crossing long and Douglas and Pizzi combine until Blind intervenes to get the ball away.
3 min
Benfica take the throw and arc in a long cross to the back post where Salvio, for it is he again, has a wild lash at a very optimistic volley. only connecting when his leg is through 90 degrees, knocking it straight into Lindelof. United clear.
1 min
Benfica kick off, go back to switch it up the right. Salvio trots up the touchline and wins a throw-in off Blind.
A minute's silence
For the victims of the Portuguese wildfires precedes kick-off.
Out come the teams
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Teams in black and white (for those of you watching in colour)
Benfica Svilar; Douglas, Luisao, Dias, Grimaldo; Fejsa, Filipe Augusto; Salvio, Pizzi, Diogo Goncalves; Raul Jimenez.
Substitutes Julio Cesar, Lopez, Samaris, Jonas, Seferovic, Zivkovic, Cervi.
Man Utd De Gea; Valencia, Lindelof, Smalling, Blind; Mata, Ander Herrera; Matic, Mkhitaryan, Rashford; Lukaku.
Substitutes Romero, Jones, Martial, Lingard, Young, Darmian, McTominay.
Referee Felix Zwayer (Germany)
Dedication, that's what you need
Mile Svilar, at 18 years and 52 days. becomes the youngest goalkeeper in Chanpions League history, overtaking Iker Casillas.
Team news
Benfica have brought in their teenage goalkeeper from Anderlecht, Raul Jimenez starts in place of Jonas, the Serbia defensive midfielder Ljubomir Fejsa comes in and 20-year-old Ruben Dias makes his Champions League debut at the back. It's as if they have already turned their eyes elsewhere.
#VamosBenfica! #UCLpic.twitter.com/X6EJYUgfBi
— SL Benfica (@SLBenfica) October 18, 2017
For United Victor Lindelof, Daley Blind, Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford come in from the Anfield XI, out go out go the cast of Parking the Buses: Philip Jones (Blakey), Matteo Darmian (Jack), Ashley Young (Stan) and Anthony Martial (Arthur).
Here's the #MUFC team to face Benfica in tonight's #UCL game... pic.twitter.com/Z8Mf48T8bp
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 18, 2017
Good evening
It is irresistible, is it not, as the late Barry Norman was wont to question, to think of Benfica vs Manchester United and not think of George Best and his sombrero, Bill Foulkes’ goal in the first leg in 1966, Bobby’s headed goal in the royal blue at Wembley in 1968, Alex Stepney’s save from Eusebio, Best-Kidd-Charlton, Bobby with the the big-eared cup, Matt Busby’s eyes and Denis Law in his hospital bed. That one of the great European ties has such a compelling two-year rivalry at its heart always colours all that succeeds it but they have, of course, met subsequently in the years since the European Cup was diluted to make sure that all shall have prizes, at least in terms of financial rewards. Of those three group stage double-headers, United have won three, drawn two and lost one, the best of them the 3-1 victory in December 2006 that emphasised after a couple of years of toil and angst that Manchester United were back.
There is a palpable sense that we’re at that point again for United. By contrast Benfica may have won the Double last season, including their fourth successive title, but it seems their resourceful and richly rewarding strategy has finally caught up with them. In the past 10 years they have made more than £410m from player sales. In 2016 it was Renato Sanches, following David Luiz, Angel di Maria, Fabio Coentrao, Nemanja Matic, Andre Gomes, Bernardo Silva, Ramires, Axel Witsel, Lazar Markovic and Jan Oblak out of the Stadium of Light.
The latest batch to leave in the summer - Ederson (Man City), Victor Lindelof (Man Utd), Nelson Semedo (Barcelona) and Kostas Mitroglou (Marseille) - raised £130m while none of their recruits cost more than £2.5m and only the Bosman signing, Switzerland’s Haris Seferovic, has played regularly. It’s the Benfica way - buy young talent from South America and Eastern Europe at Moneyball prices, send them out on loan for a couple of years, stick them in the first team for one or two more and sell high.
Draining the well again has left them struggling this season. They lost 2-1 at home against CSKA Moscow and were hammered 5-0 away by Basel in the last round of matches. With Ederson gone, Julio Cesar, who won the Champions League with Jose Mourinho at Inter in 2010, is back in goal at the age of 38 and Luisao, captain, leader, legend, is still helming the defence at the age of 36 alongside his compatriot Jardel. They can still call on Pizzi, the clever, wide playmaker and the free-scoring Jonas up-front but if Mourinho could have picked a perfect moment to take on his former club over the past five years after scoring three against Basel and banging in four in Moscow, this would be it.
What time, channel, prediction?
What is it?
This is a Champions League group stage match between Portuguese club Benfica and Manchester United. Jose Mourinho's side have won their opening two matches in the competition, while Benfica are fighting to keep their qualification hopes alive after successive defeats.
What time is kick-off?
As ever with Champions League matches, it will kick off at 7.45pm UK time. This one takes place at the Estadio da Luz.
What TV channel is it on?
BT Sport 2. If you don't have BT Sport, you can follow all the action with live updates on this page.
What is the team news, who is injured and suspended?
Benfica:
The news is generally positive regarding Benfica availability for fans of the Portuguese club. Andre Almeida is suspended after being sent off in the 5-0 defeat at Basel in their last Champions League match, but Pedro Pereira and Douglas are available to make their first appearances of the season.
A handful of players are injury doubts, including Jonas, Julio Cesar and Eliseu.
Manchester United:
Jose Mourinho has suggested he is short of options for the match with a number of players out injured.
Eric Bailly remains sidelined by the groin injury that ruled him out of United's 0-0 draw with Liverpool last weekend, while Michael Carrick, Marouane Fellaini, Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic have all been ruled out.
Marcos Rojo has travelled to Portugal, but Mourinho believes the defender remains two weeks away from returning to full fitness. Luke Shaw also travelled with the team.
No United players are absent through suspension.
What are potential line-ups?
Benfica (4-1-3-2): Cesar, Douglas, Grimaldo, Luisao, Jardel, Fejsal, Salvio, Pizzi, Cervi, Jimenez, Jonas.
Manchester United (3-4-2-1): De Gea, Jones, Smalling, Lindelof, Valencia, Herrera, Matic, Young, Mkhitaryan, Rashford, Lukaku.
What are the odds?
Benfica win: 7/2 Draw: 11/4 Manchester United win: 4/5
Champions League betting offers including Manchester United to win at 25/1 >>