PORTO (Reuters) – Leaders Porto will host wounded rivals Benfica, who’re nonetheless recovering from a tumultous week after a participant revolt led to the dismissal of supervisor Jorge Jesus, of their remaining Portuguese league match of the 12 months on Thursday.
It will likely be a second assembly inside seven days for the golf equipment after 10-man Porto thrashed Benfica 3-0 to attain the Portuguese Cup quarter-finals.
Third-placed Benfica, who path Porto and Sporting by 4 factors, won’t solely be wanting to shut the hole with the tempo setters within the league however can even be eager to bury recollections of the previous week.
The Lisbon membership endured a tumultuous few days throughout which supervisor Jesus sparked a revolt among the many gamers after he expelled captain Pizzi from apply.
The 67-year-old Portuguese, who had earlier informed Brazil’s Globo that he may very well be heading again to Flamengo for a second spell on the membership, was then handed his personal marching orders by Benfica president Rui Costa. Flamengo, nevertheless, employed one other Portuguese, former Poland coach Paulo Souza as their new coach.
Caretaker supervisor Nelson Verissimo will take cost of Benfica till the top of the season, the membership introduced. He can even have the troublesome process of snapping Porto’s seven-match unbeaten streak against Benfica in all competitions. Porto are additionally on a four-match profitable streak with out conceding a purpose.
Benfica will likely be lacking at the least six gamers due to COVID-19 instances and suspensions, together with Darwin Nunez, Nicolas Otamendi and Alejandro Grimaldo.
Porto supervisor Sergio Conceicao can even be with out starters Evanilson and Luis Diaz, who examined optimistic for COVID-19 on Wednesday. Pepe and Mehdi Taremi’s availability continues to be unsure.
(Reporting by Fernando Kallas, modifying by Pritha Sarkar)
