With Portuguese clubs not doing great in Europe lately, there was of course a little fear about Benfica’s clash against Barcelona in the Champions League group stage, which took place at the Estádio da Luz last night.
But that apprehension from Eagles fans didn’t last long, because after only three minutes, striker Darwin Nunez received the ball on the left wing, dribbled past Eric Garcia and scored the opener to make things calmer in Lisbon.
It turns out the 22-year-old did all that in front of scouts from Manchester City. The club were linked to him a while ago and now had an emissary in the stands.
The Premier League side’s visit to Portugal is reported today by newspaper A Bola.
Darwin Nunez continued offering Barcelona more danger. He hit the post after dribbling Marc-André ter Stegen in a play where the goalkeeper had to leave his box, and then scored a penalty which closed Benfica’s 3-0 win.
The striker has now scored six times in seven appearances for the Eagles this season, a sign that he’ll have another good year following the 14 goals and 12 assists he had in 2020/21. That could be more than enough to impress Manchester City again.
It was by the start of last season that Pep Guardiola’s side were linked to the player. The rumours were first reported in England and Italy, and then the Portuguese media backed up the interest from the Premier League club.
At that time, Nunez had just signed for Benfica in a €24m deal from Spanish side Almeria, where Manchester City were reportedly already watching him, and then the Catalan manager gave the ‘express indication’ for the club to continue monitoring the player.
With the scouts’ visit to Estádio da Luz last night, there was certainly something they wanted to see. And regardless of whether their prime target was Nunez or not, the Argentine striker certainly drew their attention once again.
Given the signings of Ederson and Ruben Dias, and the success the pair have had, it’s clearly exciting for City fans that the club have got their eye on Benfica once again.
