On Wednesday, FC Bayern return to Lisbon. Julian Weigl (26) explains in the Sports of the day why the German champions cannot be the big favourites.
For Julian Weigl, things are going so well in Lisbon right now that he “can’t believe it himself sometimes”, as the ex-Dortmund player laughingly tells kicker in an interview (Monday edition). What he means is his apparently newly discovered scoring ability. Weigl, who scored a total of five goals in four and a half years at BVB, has two goals and four assists for Benfica this season alone.
For the 26-year-old, who has developed into a permanent fixture in midfield after teething problems under coach Jorge Jesus and was voted player of the season by the fans, it is “an expression of the fact that I feel extremely comfortable in our system. I feel a lot of trust, from the club, from the coach. That gives me a good feeling on the pitch. Moreover, my goals have come from standards, for which I am a permanent fixture under our coach Jorge Jesus. I know the running routes and have developed better timing. That’s paying off.”
For the team, too. After eight wins from the first eight games, Benfica surprisingly suffered their first defeat only last Sunday (0:1 against Portimonense), but are still top of the table ahead of Porto and have started in the Champions League with four points out of a possible six. Especially the 3:0 against FC Barcelona three weeks ago makes Weigl’s chest broad.
It’s relatively difficult to score goals against us.
WEIGL
“Our plan for the game worked out perfectly,” the five-time international said of the win against Barça. “A lot of things came together in the run of play as well. That was our day. But we had also earned it with a good performance. We grew together even better as a team.”
Now FC Bayern await on Wednesday, and if Weigl has his way, the Munich side will have much less reason to celebrate at the Estadio da Luz this time than they did in their Champions League triumph in August 2020. “It’s relatively difficult to score goals against us,” says Benfica’s number 28, listing five reasons why Bayern should “extend their antennae”: “We have a very good defence. But we also score the most goals in the domestic league, we scored three times against Barcelona. We are not easy to count on, we can switch quickly. In addition, the atmosphere will be unpleasant for them, but it will give us a push. I expect a hot fight in which we will demand everything from the Munich team.