Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United were the only Premier League clubs to send scouts to the Lisbon derby on Wednesday afternoon, the Portuguese press reports.
Newspaper O Jogo not only names the sides who had emissaries, but also points out three players who the officials should be watching in Benfica’s 2-1 win over Sporting.
The newspaper says Ruben Dias, João Félix and Bruno Fernandes were ‘certainly’ being analysed by these three clubs. These names are known in the rumour mill as they’ve all been linked to English sides before.
Félix is the man of the moment. Although he couldn’t play so well as on the weekend, when he had a goal and an assist against the very same Sporting, he’s still shown some quality when setting up the own goal scored by the Lions’ defender Thiago Ilori.
Ruben Dias did well once again, discreet as always, keeping the Eagles’ defence safe for most of the game. The 21 year is already a full Portugal international and was of serious interest to Lyon last summer.
Bruno Fernandes scored with a beautiful long range free kick, and had a big part in Sporting’s creative sector, but couldn’t do much more than that to get the Lions a better result.
Alex Grimaldo may also be worth a mention, with a claim from Spain today that he’s of interest to both Arsenal and Atletico Madrid.
Transfer don’t often come cheap from Benfica, as Manchester United, Man City and Chelsea already know.
Scouts from Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, Montpellier and Real Valladolid have all attended the match as well.
