UEFA Champions League

Here is a look at the front pages from the big Portuguese newspapers (Abola, O Jogo, Record and Correio da Manha) on 16 September, 2020 following the PAOK 2-1 Benfica Champions League loss that saw SLB knocked out of the Champions. Benfica invested nearly 80 million euros in the summer to strengthen their squad, but were knocked out by a goal from Andrija Zivkovic, a player they themselves released on a free transfer to cut costs. Not surprisingly, Zivkovic’s past connection with Benfica and the economic damage to SLB due to the goal dominated the newspapers.

ABOLA Front page reaction PAOK 2-1 Benfica

Abola pointed out the irony that a former Benfica player had knocked the club out of the Champions League.

Record newspaper headline to PAOK vs Benfica

Record pointed out that Zivkovic had cost the club 40 million euros more!

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Here is a look at the player ratings for PAOK vs Benfica from the big Portuguese newspapers. SLB were shocked in Greece, and to add insult to injury, it was a former Benfica player (Andrija Zivkovic) who scored the winner to knock them out of the Champions League.

Correio da Manha player ratings PAOK Benfica

Everton the only outfield Benfica player to emerge with an element of credit in Correio da Manha’s player ratings, with a 7. A 4/10 rating for the trio of Jan Vertonghen, Adel Taarabt and Haris Seferovic from CdM. The paper also thought German referee Felix Brych had a decent evening (7/10) for him.

Record newspaper player ratings PAOK vs SLB

Ratings out of 5 from Record, and they gave Seferovic a 1/10 player rating. Everton again the best SLB outfield player in their eyes, along with Vlachodimos and Ruben Dias.

O Jogo player ratings PAOK-Benfica 2-1

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