football
For Roger Schmidt, coach of Red Bull Salzburg from 2012 to 2014, the league game against Vizela on Saturday did not end well. The coach of the Portuguese record champions Benfica Lisbon is threatened with a ban because he threw a bottle towards the stands. Shortly before the end of the game, the German saw the red card for this ugly act, but despite this he did not refrain from further provocations.
Just a few minutes before the end of the league game at eleventh-placed Vizela, Schmidt celebrated his team’s goal to make it 2-0 when a plastic water bottle flew onto the field and almost hit the coach in the head. The 55-year-old then grabbed the bottle and threw it back into the audience. The referee noticed this and sent Schmidt off.
“Yes, I reacted a bit to the provocations from the fans behind me. And that’s not allowed, so I accept the red card. That’s all,” explained the Benfica coach. Schmidt, who has also worked as a trainer at Bayer Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven, also discussed things with the rowdy fans of the home team after the bottle was thrown. After the red card, he ‘bid farewell’ to the Vizela supporters by showing the end result with both hands on the way to the dressing room.
Benfica still in top form
Now Schmidt has to wait for the extent of the lock. But he will be able to cope with that, because the weekend was otherwise very positive for him and for Benfica. Thanks to their own victory and the surprising 2-1 defeat of pursuers FC Porto on Sunday at home to Gil Vicente, the “Adlers” were able to extend the gap to their arch-rivals to eight points after 22 of 34 games.