Benfica boss Marco Silva says he may rotate his starting lineup for Thursday night's Europa League date with Celtic. The Portuguese side defeated Vitoria over the weekend, winning 2-0 thanks to goals from Samuel Dahl and Heorhly Sudakov.
Sudakov was a doubt for the game through injury but returned to find the net, and the win keeps Benfica within five points of last season's champions FC Porto, which is, of course, further away than they will want to be.
Fortunately for Benfica, they are off to a strong start in the Europa League, beating AC Milan away from home in what will likely be the most difficult fixture of their league phase campaign.
On Thursday, they welcome Celtic in what will be a huge test for the Hoops, but Benfica appear to know they have an advantage, with head coach Silva even contemplating changes.
"Yes, it's a possibility," Silva replied when asked about the possibility of rotation.
"Right now, the idea is to give some players from the B team some playing time to gain match fitness. "From there, we will assess the players and analyse the next opponent to prepare for Thursday's game and make the necessary decisions.
"I was pleased at the control of the game we had against Vitoria. We had to be patient. I felt that some players were more tired than usual, especially those who had been with their national teams.
"We gave the 60,000 fans at the Estadio da Luz plenty to enjoy. The reality is that we didn't give our opponent any chances and won the game comfortably."
Celtic certainly won't mind if Benfica don't have their strongest team out. It's going to be a huge test for the Bhoys in Lisbon, especially with how poorly the Hoops have performed against better teams so far this season.
Benfica will be the biggest test for the Bhoys during this Europa League league phase, and they are going to have to show that their learned quickly from their disappointing performance against Ferencvaros in their opening game.
Benfica will be an unforgiving opponent, and Celtic will need to have their best performance of the season so far.
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