Consecutive losses in the Champions League put Mourinho at risk of being fired

Jose Mourinho continues to experience a poor run with Benfica in the UEFA Champions League, suffering the latest defeat against Bayer Leverkusen.

Playing at home, Benfica had a strong game against Bayer Leverkusen, but a mistake by young star Samuel Dahl led the Portuguese side to lose on their own turf.

This result marks Benfica’s fourth consecutive defeat in the group stage UEFA Champions League this season, placing them second to last. For Jose Mourinho, this is his third straight loss in European competition since being appointed head coach of Benfica in September. Previously, the Portuguese manager and his team lost 0-1 to Chelsea and 0-3 to Newcastle.

With the current streak, the "Special One" is under heavy pressure at home and could face the threat of dismissal. If this happens soon, the 62-year-old coach would be fired for the second time in less than six months. Previously, Mourinho was dismissed by Fenerbahce after failing to qualify the team for the Champions League.

After the latest defeat, Mourinho still praised his players’ performance but expressed regret over failing to convert chances into goals.

He stated: "It was an impressive and complete performance. The only imperfection was that we missed too many chances and didn’t score. It’s unfortunate because many of the situations we executed well were precisely what we had carefully prepared.

We had 21 shots on goal, of course not all clear scoring opportunities, but four or five were extremely good chances. The important thing is that these chances were not random but came in a match where the team played very well both with and without the ball, despite occasionally struggling with the opponent’s counterattacks. We controlled the game, playing quality football in both attack and defense phases, but when close to the goal, we couldn’t turn chances into goals.

I was also heartbroken to see a young player perform excellently but make a mistake that led to a goal, and from that moment, even though we tried to encourage and reassure…"

Besides not having won any Champions League matches, Mourinho is under great pressure as the team has yet to score in the competition since he took charge. In the Portuguese league, Benfica currently sits third, behind Porto and Sporting Lisbon.

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