Trubin starts at Vlachodimos

Benfica’s new goalkeeper has the same number of goals conceded and clean sheets in his first six matches with an eagle on his chest. The Champions League’s early baptism of fire into the classics

Anatoly Trubin arrives, sees and… is in the process of persuasion.

The turbulent manner in which the title was won between the goalposts of the national champion, one of the side effects of the direct clash between Odysseus Vlachodimos and Roger Schmidt after the German coach criticized the performance of the Greek international after the defeat (2-3) against Greece. Bessa and his demand for clarifications – which would have prompted the German coach to omit Vlachodimos from the squad for the second round match against Estrela da Amadora, in which Samuel Soares started – was just another hurdle the goalkeeper faced. The 22-year-old Ukrainian network had to deal with being dumped in the wilderness.

Moreover, the debut took place outside the Luz stadium, where Tropin gave the Reds a baptism of fire in Vizela, in the fifth round of the league, leaving there with a win (2-1) and also scoring the first goal in the service of the Eagles.

Five more matches followed, and some real trials with fire, such as the Luz derby against FC Porto or the Champions League second round match against Inter, at Giuseppe Meazza.

It is still too early, of course, to make an assessment, but comparing Tropin’s start in Luz with Vlachodimos’ start, in 2018/2019, we find several points in common.

It is immediately clear that in the first six matches with an eagle on their chest, both the Ukrainian and the Greek conceded the same number of goals: five.

There are also a number of commonalities clean sheets In this initial stage, that is, the matches in which they did not concede. Two goals for Tropin (Porto and Estoril in the seventh and eighth rounds of the league) and for Vlachodimos (Fenerbahce in Luz in the third qualifying round of the Champions League, and Boavista in Besa in the second round of 2018). /19).

Early involvement in Champions League matches is also shared between the two. But the context Vlachodimos found was not the same as the one Trupin found. The Greek arrived at a team that was not champion and had to fight its way to the group stage, the first goal of that season, at the start of the season, leaving the Turks of Fenerbahce and the Greeks of PAOK along the way. .

Tropin arrived after the Marquis de Pombal had his hands full again to celebrate his long-awaited 38th. He appeared for the first time in the group stage of the Champions League in the second match with an eagle on his chest, against Inter Milan, and suffered his first defeat. For the incarnate.

This is, in fact, one of the points that distinguishes their campaign after the first six matches for Benfica. Vlachodimos has won three, drawn three, and is unbeaten, but Truben has already lost two (Salzburg and Inter, both in the Champions League) in the same number of matches. He also had more wins with four to Vlachodimos’ three in the same period last year.

The Ukrainian won more times (4), but he also lost more (2), while the Greek (three wins and three draws in the first six matches) tasted a bitter defeat in the ninth match, in Luz, against Al-Qawi. Bayern Munich.

Vlachodimos had to wait 20 (!) games to make it two games without conceding a single goal. Tropin already has the opportunity to do so when Benfica returns to the competition on the 20th, to face Lusitania dos Acores, in the third round of Portuguese football’s premier competition, meaning if he starts in place of Samuel Soares, he will remain to watch. If Roger Schmidt will enhance any turnover in goal.