Manchester City scouts were reportedly present at the Estádio da Luz last night.
According to O Jogo, club emissaries watched Benfica play Napoli in their final Champions League group stage match. Despite losing 2-1, the home team still achieved qualification for the knock-out rounds.
Manchester City have been linked to Benfica players Ederson and Alex Grimaldo over the past few months, so O Jogo mentions them as potential targets.
Ederson didn’t have any fault for Napoli’s two goals. He actually made many saves and stopped a worse defeat for his side, subsequently picked by O Jogo as the man of the match.
Alex Grimaldo has been injured for a while and Manchester City were probably pretty aware of that, so he wasn’t the one to be watched last night.
With one goal and one assist, former Everton player Dries Mertens had a very good performance, being Napoli’s main man of the night.
Other English sides such as Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal have also sent scouts to this game. It has really become a routine thing for clubs to watch games in Portugal, so City probably weren’t focused on those two Benfica players only.
