Brentford Head Coach, Thomas Frank has praised his players for holding Benfica to a 1-1 pre-season draw.
Bryan Mbeumo fired Brentford into a ninth-minute lead after he intercepted Morato’s backpass to Anatoliy Trubin, following Morato’s initial interception of Kevin Schade’s ball up the left flank.
Vangelis Pavlidis rescued a 1-1 draw for Benfica with a close-range effort from Alvaro Carreras’ cross.
Speaking post-match, Frank was impressed by how his Bees handled the tough European test against last season’s Primeira Liga runners-up, with 40,826 fans in attendance.
“It’s a great experience for everyone. The Premier League is the best league in the world, we are privileged to play in it, but sometimes we don’t think or talk enough about the other countries or clubs.
“Benfica is a huge club, I don’t know if we really understood that, but we come to this fantastic stadium and they bring over 40,000 to a friendly – it’s impressive.”
Defender, Ethan Pinnock was also impressed with how he and his teammates coped against Benfica, especially in front of a strong crowd for a pre-season friendly.
“It was a great experience,” Pinnock commented. “They’re a side with a lot of calibre and a lot of history and it was a packed-out stadium. It was a good test.”
Frank also credited his players for how they dealt with such opposition across the match despite missing some top players
“It was another good test against another good opponent. I thought we started the game very well, until they equalised I felt we were more on top of the game.
“The second half started slow but we grew into it; the last half-hour, we played with a very young team – well done to them and to everyone who has been involved in their development. What a great experience for them today.”
Brentford will next face Estrela on Tuesday 30 July before concluding their 2024-25 pre-season with a trip to Watford on 3 August, plus a home friendly against Wolfsburg on 9 August.
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