Mourinho lost the match and received a yellow card on his return to the Champions League.

After more than 5 years of absence, Jose Mourinho finally returned to the Champions League arena, when he led Benfica to face his old team Chelsea.

Coach Mourinho failed to make an impression on his return - Photo: REUTERS

A month ago, it was Benfica who caused coach Mourinho to lose his job when they defeated Fenerbahce in the play-off round, thereby officially winning a place in the Champions League.

But ironically, Benfica later fired coach Bruno Lage - who was not popular with the players, and appointed Mr. Mourinho to the hot seat.

And the Portuguese strategist finally gets to return to the Champions League arena, something he couldn't enjoy when leading AS Roma as well as Fenerbahce.

Mourinho's return date is even more noteworthy when Benfica visits Chelsea - a team that has many memories with the Portuguese strategist.

Having to play away and being rated as inferior, Benfica is still expected to make a surprise thanks to coach Mourinho on the coaching bench. In addition, Chelsea is missing a series of key players due to injury.

The two teams entered the match quite enthusiastically, with each team creating notable finishing moves in the first 15 minutes.

In the 18th minute, Chelsea surprisingly opened the score thanks to the efforts of rookie Garnacho.

The Argentine striker got down to meet Pedro Neto's pass. He crossed with his first touch, the ball hit Rios of Benfica and flew straight into the net.

Garnacho (left) scored the only goal for Chelsea - Photo: REUTERS

Not having the desired lineup, coach Enzo Maresca accepted to let Chelsea play defensive counter-attack for most of the next period.

On the other hand, Benfica created some notable opportunities but their strikers were not good enough to score.

As a result, the match had no more goals scored, but the referee had to show many yellow cards.

Chelsea received 4 yellow cards, of which Pedro received 2 and was sent off in the 90+6 minute. Benfica also received 6 yellow cards, with 1 card for Mourinho's reaction.

In the end, Benfica lost 0-1 to Chelsea. And coach Mourinho had a lackluster return to the Champions League arena.

This defeat puts Benfica at great risk of being eliminated because they still have no points after 2 matches, and are facing a very heavy schedule in the coming time.

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HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/mourinho-thua-tran-lanh-the-vang-trong-ngay-tai-xuat-champions-league-20251001043347082.htm