Simão Sabrosa: "It’s a very balanced group"

STATEMENTS TO BTV

Internazionale Milano (Italy), FC Salzburg (Austria) and Real Sociedad (Spain) are the opponents of Benfica in the Champions League group stage 2023/24. Simão Sabrosa, club's director for international relations, considered that "all teams have the same possibilities".

With Benfica in a Group (D) that containsmany curiosities - the eagles meet Internazionale, opponent in the quarter-finals of the last edition, and face Salzburg, team that Roger Schmidt trained (2012-2014) and led to the title -, Simão Sabrosa highlighted the "quality" as a common denominator.

"It’s a very balanced group. We know Internazionale from last season, runners-up [defeat in the Champions League final, with Manchester City, 1-0], and Real Sociedad, which is a tough team, with great quality. Not forgetting the others, which deserve all our respect," he told to BTV.

The director for international relations of the Club gave the recipe for Benfica to move forward: "It is [to do] what our club and our players have already accustomed us, always with the same focus, the same rigor, the same respect and the same quality. That’s the key to the future of our team."

Simão Sabrosa refused to elect Inter as "the main opponent" of the eagles in Group D.

"Everyone counts the same way. Our game against Internazionale will not be a rematch, it will be a game that we want to win for the club we represent, for the jersey we wear. It will be a difficult group, in which we will have to be very rigorous and competent to be able to move on to the next phase," he explained.