BENFICA warmed up for their Europa League clash with Rangers by being SMASHED by rivals Porto.
The Portuguese champions went to the Estadio do Dragao looking for a morale-boosting win ahead of the visit of Philippe Clement’s side on Thursday for the first leg of their last 16 tie.
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But it went disastrously wrong for Roger Schmidt’s side who shipped five goals to hand the initiative to Sporting in the title race.
And to cap a disastrous night defender Nicolas Otamendi was also sent off for two yellow cards.
Benfica only had ONE shot on target the whole game and only forced two corners as they were totally outplayed by their big rivals.
That result will give Rangers hope as they look to bounce back from their own setback after losing 2-1 to Motherwell at the weekend.
But the Benfica travelling support in Porto showed they are made of stronger stuff than their team.
They put on an impressive pyro display that lit up their corner of the stadium.
And they chanted that they still loved the club – despite them being embarrassed in a major domestic match.
But not everyone on social media was as upbeat.
One Benfica fanpage reckoned the only way to atone for this humiliation would be to beat Rangers by the same scoreline.
They wrote on X: “Catastrophic night.
“If a result like this has no consequences, I don’t know what we are doing.
“Thank you, J. Neves, for your attitude.
“And thanks to the Benfiquista fans who were in the stadium.
“You will never walk alone, Benfica.
“Beat Rangers 5-0.”
A second agreed: “This is when we are humiliated at the home of our biggest rival.
“A lot of Benfica in the stands and very little inside the club.”
Another fan was more philosophical about the bigger picture.
They wrote: “That’s all that matters – Benfica in its essence, in its people.
“The years change, the players change, the presidents change, but we will be here.”
And another fan was of a similar mind.
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They said: “In the stands we always win, even if the response on the field doesn’t correspond to this.”
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