The Portuguese press keep putting Manchester United and Bayern Munich head to head on the fight for the Benfica talents.
Both clubs have sent scouts to the Eagles’ away tie against Braga this weekend, which the away side won 1-0 with a goal scored by Konstantinos Mitroglou.
When reporting the emissaries who watched the game, O Jogo says that Manchester United and Bayern Munich officials were there to watch the same targets: Nelson Semedo and Victor Lindelof.
The right-back had an impressive second half by creating many of Benfica’s attacking plays, as the Swedish defender did his job in cutting off the danger offered by Braga.
Manchester United and Bayern Munich are the clubs said to be closest to find a deal for Semedo. Although a deal with the Red Devils was claimed recently, there’s also the rumour that the German side would want the player to replace Philip Lahm at the end of the season.
And as we all know, Victor Lindelof got close to joining Manchester United in January, but the deal was pulled off. Bayern Munich were never strongly linked to him, so we don’t see a special reason why they’re mentioned like this this time.
Taking Chelsea as an example, the Blues were also present at the match, and have been linked to both players in the past few months, but didn’t get such a mention.
So it sounds like the Portuguese press are trying to put United and Bayern against each other to repeat the battle from last year, when the Benfica midfielder Renato Sanches got between them.
Given that these rumours only raise the players’ price, there’s obviously one side who benefits from these auctions: Benfica.
