They were, throughout their centuries-old existences, often like brothers. Benfica and Sporting I mean. It was no coincidence that, in the year in which the first hundred years of the derby were celebrated, I gave the title to the book that was born as a result: Worse Than Enemies Were Brothers. A title shamelessly stolen from the great Dino Segre, Italian, journalist, writer and above all owner of a formidable sense of humor who used the nickname Pittigrili. I believe he didn’t care, or at least he didn’t complain (I always gave credit for the phrase, even though no one paid him royalties), so it ended up like that and, modesty aside, it ended up being very sweet.
Two brothers who live on both sides of the same road, the dreadful Segunda Circular, the longest and most clogged artery in Lisbon, on the verge of collapse due to excess car cholesterol, and who have just experienced two strange and quite undefined crises. So strange that we have yet to find out if they happened. That of Sporting, marked by the orphanhood of Ruben Amorim, for me undoubtedly the best Portuguese coach, and by the ineffectiveness of João Pereira who suffered, mercilessly, being placed in front of him the boulder of Sisyphus and demanding that he push it to the top of the mountain. Let’s accept that that sentence from Frederico Varandas, alluding to the young coach’s yet-to-be-revealed capabilities, and promising him a future place at the helm of one of Europe’s biggest clubs was absolutely murderous. The defeats were adding up, the championship lead that seemed firm vanished, João Pereira ended up leaving the horse’s door to be replaced by Rui Borges. And the former Vitória de Guimarães coach didn’t need any great feat to eliminate the catastrophic scenario and be able to fill the lion’s chest again. A victory in Alvalade (1-0) against a Benfica cowering with fear and lack of self-confidence, was enough for the fans to move away from the crisis scenario and convince themselves once again that the title will not slip away. Now, another victory (1-0), in the semi-final of the League Cup, against FC Porto who, in this type of game, and despite the almost miraculous work that Vítor Bruno has done with the short squad he has at his disposal, With few alternatives and evident lower quality compared to rivals, it established the conviction that the path to glory has once again been illuminated.
Lage’s fear
And if Sporting has once again entered its happy phase, even if it is not yet based on performances with the brilliance of the beginning of the season, Benfica is coming from horrible weeks in which in three consecutive matches (the other game, in between, was delayed ) committed the hideous feat of losing eight points. And, more than the lost points, there was a total inability of the team and its coach to face the red-and-black crisis. In Vila das Aves, winning 1-0, the eagles were run over in the second half by an undoubtedly inferior opponent. In Alvalade, fear once again made Bruno Lage enter the field with his legs shaking and passed on this incredible pusillanimity to the players. It was of little or no use to come and wipe the water off the coat and invoke the team’s will in the second half. The classic was lost due to a lack of attitude and fear. And the two players with the highest status on the team, Otamendi and Di Maria, did not hold their tongues in criticizing the coach who, the following week, in the nonsense of a man who finds himself under siege, lost his sense and lost at home against Braga, leaving further and further away from the first place he had promised his fans for the start of the new year. Lage’s poor speech, entangled in confusion, such as that at first it was necessary to win to catch up and that he then thought he should rest the team, is worthy of Pittigrili. The points he wasted in the three games mentioned were of the same severity as the four lost by Roger Schmidt at the beginning of the season. A lost point is a lost point and nothing more.
Wednesday, in the semi-final against Braga (3-0), Lage must have felt like never before this season that, whatever the League Cup is worth (and it’s worth very little), his neck was being increasingly pushed towards the guillotine. The victory could not even be called into question without running the risk of the results crisis that took over Benfica in an overwhelming way (the performance crisis is ingrained like an incurable disease) moving into the cancerous phase. With good moments, but once again without consistency for ninety minutes, Bruno Lage can breathe a little easier until Saturday. He shook off a double defeat to Braga in five days that would have been shameful enough to paint his face black. Unfortunately for him, he is now faced with the very concrete fact that he will suffer a second defeat against Sporting in the space of twenty-three days. A natural defeat considering that the lions continue to have better players, a better team, and now perhaps a better coach than their Second Circular neighbors. Furthermore, as usual, the Benfica coach must be shaking with fear. It’s in your blood.
