The Benfica team trained on Saturday morning at Seixal, following their victory over Boavista the day before, with only one concern. João Neves still had some complaints from a physical issue (a knock to his right thigh in the game against Rio Ave) which led Roger Schmidt to use him for only five minutes in the match against Boavista.
The Benfica coach revealed after the game that João Neves 'felt muscular discomfort' during Thursday's training. 'Nothing serious, but we didn't want to take any risks. We took the opportunity to give him some rest and only brought him on when needed. Florentino has also been performing very well in recent weeks, so we wanted to give him more playing time. He deserves it,' he argued.
The 19-year-old midfielder still had some complaints during Saturday morning's training session and it is not certain whether he will be able to regain his starting position in the match against Estoril on Wednesday, in the semi-finals of the Final Four of the League Cup, in Leiria. The next few days will be decisive in evaluating João Neves's recovery progress.
Against Boavista, João Neves came in with great energy and was fouled hard by Vukotic shortly after replacing Kokçu, causing some concern on the Benfica bench. But he responded positively and provided the team with the energy they needed when the score was still 1-0. It was only a few minutes, but they were intense. And this morning, João Neves still didn't feel 100 percent.
Roger Schmidt gave the team a day off on Sunday. They will return to training on Monday morning to prepare for the match against Estoril.
