The Champions League is the most difficult! Mourinho challenges the five giants, Benfica will be eliminated after losing two more games

In the middle of the week, the third round of the Champions League is about to take place. Mourinho, who has returned to Benfica, has once again attracted everyone's attention. Judging from the schedule, Benfica can be regarded as the most difficult of the 36 teams in the Champions League in the next six games. If they lose two more games, they may be eliminated.

The past two months have been a mixture of joy and sorrow for Mourinho, like a roller coaster ride. He led Fenerbahce to lose to Benfica in the qualifying round and missed the Champions League. He was dismissed quickly, and then quickly took over Benfica. By God's will, Mourinho personally sent Benfica to participate in the Champions League. He never expected that he would continue on by himself.

After Mourinho returned to his old club, he completed a total of 6 games, with 2 wins and 2 draws in the Portuguese Super League. He was still 4 points away from Porto at the top of the list. He defeated low-level teams in the Portuguese Cup and successfully advanced. The only defeat occurred in the Champions League, where he lost to the familiar Chelsea in an away game. Overall, this kind of result can only be said to be good, not too good, nor too bad.

Because the European champions have become famous, Mourinho, who has been away from the Champions League for many years, naturally hopes to perform brilliantly in Europe's top competitions. Unfortunately, Benfica's luck is really bad. Almost all of its eight opponents are from major European leagues. In the first round, Benfica lost to the dark horse Karabakh, and Lage was dismissed sadly. In fact, this was the weakest opponent. In the second round, facing Chelsea, they lost because of an own goal and missed the opportunity to score points.

Next, Benfica faced Newcastle, Leverkusen, Ajax, Naples, Juventus and Real Madrid. Except for Newcastle, the other five teams can be regarded as European giants. Just looking at these names, you know that each team is not easy to deal with and is quite difficult.

Looking at the 36 teams in the Champions League, Paris faces Bayer Leverkusen, Bayern Munich, Tottenham, Bilbao, Sporting CP and Newcastle, while Karabakh faces Bilbao, Chelsea, Naples, Ajax, Frankfurt and Liverpool. Only these two teams' remaining opponents are comparable to Benfica in difficulty. The difference is that Paris and dark horse Karabakh have both won two consecutive games and already hold 6 points, while Benfica has lost two games in a row and failed to score a point, leaving almost no room for error.

According to the situation last season, the 24th place in the Champions League has 11 points, and the 24th place in the Europa League with the same format has 10 points. Teams that have lost 4 games in the Champions League are all eliminated early, and those who have lost in the Europa League have 10 points. Of the four teams, only Hungary's Ferencvaros (4 wins and 4 losses) and Greece's Thessaloniki (3 wins, 1 draw and 4 losses) have not been eliminated. The former has won or lost, and has won enough games. The latter has a few more goal differences and just qualified.

Therefore, it can be thought that if you lose 4 games or fail to score 11 points, you can basically bid farewell to the Champions League early. Benfica, which has lost both games now, will lose two more games, which means it is very likely to leave the European competition early.

In fact, Benfica is not weak at all. In the Portuguese Super League and Portuguese Cup last season, they were suppressed by Sporting CP and finished second in both games. In the Champions League, they defeated Atletico Madrid and Juventus. In the Club World Cup group stage, they defeated Bayern Munich and won the first place in the group. In the end, they lost to Chelsea in a long game that lasted for 5 hours and were eliminated.

This week, Mourinho once again led the team back to England to challenge Newcastle away from home. It is obviously the easiest among the next 6 opponents. After losing Isaac, Newcastle fell sharply this season. Even after losing to Brighton, Walter Mader was still named the best player in the game. However, he scored many goals and it was still difficult to help the team achieve better results. If Benfica wants to qualify, they need to score three points from Newcastle in order to lay a solid foundation for more difficult opponents in the future. Otherwise, losing again and again and being eliminated early will be inevitable.

Benfica is really struggling. When will their first Champions League win come?