Celtic were one of the many clubs who sent scouts to watch Benfica against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League Round Of 16 last night, report Portuguese newspaper A Bola. Benfica won the game 1-0, but with such an even match there were lots of positives for Celtic to take from both teams.
Brendan Rodgers has been loosely linked with interest in Benfica’s Victor Lindelof, but the defender has been attracting widespread interest and is likely out of Celtic’s reach at the moment.
Luisão, Nelson Semedo, Filipe Augusto and Salvio all put in good displays for Benfica, but the Eagles’ win was really due to Konstas Mitroglou’s opportunism in scoring the winner and Ederson’s fantastic goalkeeping.
Borussia Dortmund created many chances which perhaps should have seen them get a better result. Raphael Guerreiro, Julian Weigl and Ousmane Dembélé were all creative but all their efforts were in vain.
Celtic have been repeatedly scouting Benfica for some time. The club were sending spies to Benfica matches before Brendan Rodgers took over and have continued since. Realistically it may have to be a fringe player Celtic could target and as of yet there’s been no reports of the club making any enquiries.
Whilst Rodgers was at Liverpool, there were claims the club had agreed a deal to buy Salvio from Benfica for around €35m, but the player then suffered a serious injury. Given that Salvio renewed his contract in June, he’s likely out of Celtic’s range.
