Jose Mourinho gets strong winning start at Benfica

Jose Mourinho got off to a strong start in his first game as manager of Benfica as his side eased to a comfortable 3-0 win over AVS Futebol SAD in a Primeira Liga clash.

Mourinho, who left Turkey’s Fenerbahce last month, was appointed Benfica manager on Thursday, a day after Bruno Lage was sacked following their shock 3-2 Champions League defeat by Qarabag.

Heorhiy Sudakov opened the scoring for Benfica on the stroke of half-time, before Vangelis Pavlidis and Franjo Ivanovic sealed the three points on Saturday. Despite the win, the former Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United boss was quick to keep expectations in check.

“We worked for an hour and a half yesterday,” the 62-year-old told reporters. “I thank the players for their professionalism, their passion for the club, but at the same time for the way they welcomed me, the way I felt they were embracing what we were working on, and that’s it.

“If we had lost, it would obviously have been a disaster in terms of points. Winning isn’t phenomenal, but it was the best thing we could do, they needed to win after losing two points and after a psychologically heavy defeat.

“I told them after the game, it was good, but it was nothing extraordinary, hurry up, tomorrow there’s training in the morning.”