Benfica defender César “happy with the opportunity to play” after starting in Bayer Leverkusen stalemate

Benfica defender César has noted that he was “happy with the opportunity to play,” after starting in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League. The 21 year-old – full name César Henrique Martins – was signed from Ponte Preta in July for a reported fee of €3 million, but had previously […]
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sambafoot_admin
2014-12-10 21:29:00

Benfica defender César has noted that he was “happy with the opportunity to play,” after starting in Tuesday’s 0-0 draw with Bayer Leverkusen in the UEFA Champions League.

The 21 year-old – full name César Henrique Martins – was signed from Ponte Preta in July for a reported fee of €3 million, but had previously been limited to an eleven minute cameo against Monaco and a start in a 3-2 Taça de Portugal third round win over Sporting Covilhã.

Speaking after the Bayer Leverkusen tie, César was pleased with the playing time and tried to be buoyant about Benfica’s prospects for the rest of the campaign, despite their exit from European competition.

“I am very happy with the opportunity to play in the first team and in the UEFA Champions League,” he said, as reported by UEFA’s official website. “Of course we did not want to finish our campaign bottom of the table but the group was very strong. Now we have to focus on our domestic competitions as we are looking to win trophies this season.”

Having lost twice to Zenit earlier in the group stage, Benfica couldn’t surpass them to secure a UEFA Europa League berth due to their inferior head to head record.

With nothing to play for, the Águias could be forgiven for having a more reserved approach against Bayer. Despite that however, César was happy with how they played out the game.

“Everybody could see our commitment tonight and I think we deserved to win,” he continued. “We played well and did what the coach asked. We could have won but we had no luck in front of goal. We are happy with our overall performance tonight.”