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Benfica come to Munich with plenty of confidence for Wednesday’s Champions League match against Bayern after they claimed a 2-1 win away at Farense in Portugal’s Primeira Liga. The hosts and division’s bottom team went ahead through Dario Poveda before the Lisbon club turned things around with goals from Alvaro Carreras and Evangelos Pavlidis.
Also three straight wins
“It was a fair result in my opinion,” said Benfica coach Bruno Lage after the game, also pointing at his team’s good form of late. Like Bayern, the Portuguese side finished the past week with two wins in the league and progress in the domestic cup. Prior to the weekend’s victory in Faro, the Eagles had already beaten Rio Ave 5-0 in the league and gone through to the semi-finals of the Taca da Liga by seeing off Santa Clara 3-0.
Even with ex-Bayern midfielder Renato Sanches coming on, Benfica were beaten 3-1 against Feyenoord in their last Champions League outing. | Getty
“We’ve concluded this cycle in a pleasing way and now have four days to prepare for the Bayern game,” Lage added. “I’ve just congratulated the players. They ran, they fought, they turned the result around and put in a performance we can be pleased with. It’s three points, and now we need to look ahead to the next game with the same ambition as usual.”
Defeat last time out in Europe
Benfica are third in their domestic league, eight points behind leaders Sporting Lisbon but with a game in hand over their city rivals. The Eagles started the league phase of the Champions League with back-to-back wins but were beaten 3-1 at home to Feyenoord last time out.
Read up on the facts ahead of Wednesday’s meeting:
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