Portuguese side Benfica really need a win at Old Trafford to still have a chance to get qualification for the Champions League knockout stages.
Scoring in Manchester should be a task difficult enough, but there’s also a bigger challenge: the Eagles will have to play with quite an alternative defensive line.
Youngster Ruben Dias has only been promoted to the first team this season, making seven appearances so far. And as reported by several local outlets today, he’s expected to lead the defence against Manchester United.
The 20-year-old had quite a good display in the previous fixture at the Estádio da Luz, stopping Romelu Lukaku for most of the time.
But on that occasion, he had the experienced Luisão playing alongside him, something that will not happen tomorrow because of the Brazilian’s suspension.
As reported by A Bola today, Jardel or Lisandro Lopez could start alongside Dias. But despite being older, they should still have him as their ‘boss’.
Just like in the game in Lisbon, Benfica still can’t count on André Almeida, so right-back Douglas will have to play. Despite having a good start in that first game, he later struggled both when attacking and when trying to stop Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial on the left wing.
The only back-four position which Benfica are confident about is the left-back, as Alex Grimaldo is ready to play and is expected to have a solid performance just like in the previous match.
So although many Manchester United fans still have goalkeeper Mile Svilar on their minds, they should know that for tomorrow night, there are a couple of other concerns in Benfica’s defence. There will be a lot of pressure on a 20-year-old, something that José Mourinho will certainly want to take advantage of.
Mourinho will know all about Benfica’s woes and will not only be planning to give Svilar more nightmares, but also to spread that to the wider defence.
