Benfica tops Spurs in London but Fiorentina holds Juventus
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TIM Sherwood’s prospects of remaining in the Tottenham Hotspur manager’s job long-term were not helped as his side lost 1-3 at home to Benfica in their Europa League last 16, first leg on Thursday.
Portuguese league leader Benfica extended its unbeaten run to 24 matches and made it nine consecutive wins in all competitions with a victory that came courtesy of a goal from Rodrigo and a Luisao brace, with Christian Eriksen pulling one back for the hosts.
Amid speculation that Spurs will move to bring in experienced Dutchman Louis van Gaal as coach in the summer, Sherwood saw his team suffer a defeat that leaves it in a very difficult position heading into next week’s return leg in Lisbon.
Sherwood admitted Benfica was a better side but hit out at the antics of its coach, Jorge Jesus. “I thought his team were very good and showed a lot of class — it’s just a shame he didn’t,” said the Spurs boss.
“In the first two minutes he was coming over to the fourth official saying I was stepping in his box. He doesn’t mind himself, does he, to be fair? Waving goodbye like that [with three fingers]? It lacks class.”
Elsewhere, Juventus was held to a 1-1 draw by Italian rival Fiorentina in Turin in a repeat of the 1990 UEFA Cup final.
Juventus won that tie and also beat La Viola 1-0 in Serie A last weekend, and it opened the scoring when Arturo Vidal fired home inside three minutes.
Antonio Conte’s side is hoping to go all the way to a final that will be played in its own stadium but Fiorentina is still very much in the tie after Mario Gomez levelled the scores in the 79th minute.
There was an upset in the night’s other big derby clash in Spain, as Real Betis won 2-0 away to city neighbor Sevilla at the Sanchez Pizjuan.
Betis is bottom of Spain’s top flight and lost by four goals on each of its last two visits to its rival, but Leo Baptistao put it in front from close range after quarter of an hour and the aptly-named Salva Sevilla increased its advantage late on.
Meanwhile, Rafael Benitez’s hopes of winning the Europa League for a second consecutive season are in the balance after Napoli lost 0-1 away to Porto.
Spaniard Benitez, who won the trophy with Chelsea last year and also lifted the UEFA Cup with Valencia in 2004, will hope Napoli can overturn the deficit in next week’s return after a second-half Jackson Martinez strike gave Porto the upper hand at the Estadio do Dragao.
Benitez’s old club Valencia appears to be all but through to the last eight after an excellent 3-0 win away to Ludogorets Razgrad in Bulgaria.
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