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LadyEagle

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Discussion starter · #1 ·
This is the result.:depress: These are the good things that I like about Benfica,




















the end!
:yuck:
Poor Enke. Without him, the result would have been doubled.
 
Discussion starter · #3 ·
Oh, I forgot to say something.
:devil:
VIVA O BENFICA!
FORCA BENFICA!
BENFICA ALWAYS AND FOREVER!


I have just realized once again, how much I love Benfica. :)

We had a bad game, but I still believe we will be the champions this year.
 
Thank god for Enke.
Our defense has been miserable of late and today was no exception, however losing to a team withan 100% home record isnt that bad.
Although i think a cup win would have been more valuable with our win in the league we are right back in contention.
I think over this week we have taken a step forward.....also did you see how pathetic they are....16,000 attendance for a porto v benfica cup match.....pathetic, typical them though!!!
 
First all this crap about OG's banning and now this. This is officially my worst day at xtratime :(

The rain would be an easy excuse, but a completely hollow one. Porto controlled every aspect of this game from start to finish. It was 3-0 when Diogo Luis got sent off for his second yellow (the second was just plain stupid), and they played with 10 players for more than half the game.

Razor's Top 3 Worst Performers for Benfica Today:

3) Maniche - he is just plain awful
2) Ronaldo - he got a yellow about 20 minutes into the game, meaning that he's suspended versus Beira Mar. His head wasn't in the game after that in any shape or form and he was directly responsible for the 2nd and 3rd goals IMO.
1) Rojas - an absolute disgrace. I didn't realize how good Dudic was until I watched Rojas play today.

Bright Spots (and I use the term loosely :groan: )

3) Calado - average performance, but better than 95% of the other players on his team today
2) Enke - as LE said, it could have been 8-0 if not for him
1) Ednilson - two games into his Benfica career and I'm already saying, "where would we be without Ednilson?"

Congratulations to the Portistas here - Capucho played another fantastic game in horrible conditions. A fine display. Do you guys still want to can FS?! ;)

On the bright side - LadyEagle's right; this is just the Cup. We still have a shot at the title, and we have five days to prepare for the match "By The Sea".

FORCA BENFICA!!! :strong: :fero:
 
4-0 wow! It surprised because Benfica has been playing good lately but it serves you's right for beating Sporting 3-0 :D

The rest of this season should be really interesting!
 
I watched the game at the Casa do Benfica (ahem..."business lunch") and for SLB's benefit (since you listened to it), it was torrential downpours. The wind was blowing the advertising barriers on the sideline onto the field, there were puddles of water in front of the west keeper area and balls were dying (in some cases stopping). It may sound strange, but the poor conditions actually helped Benfica in the 2nd half because it slowed down Porto. In any case, the weather had a huge part in the low attendance in my opinion.

The 1st half was painful to watch, man. It was 3-0 at the half but it felt like 17-0. The shots were 15-2 at halftime! Good thing Toni kept Marchena out today! Benfica had something like 9 yellows today.

All that aside - you're right. We're in good shape for the 2nd half of the season. At the very least, we hold our destiny in our own hands.

After the disaster of the 4-5-1 today, I'd bet the house that Meira falls back into central defense alongside Marchena. Here's what I predict the lineup will look like versus Beira Mar:

GK: Enke
D: Dudic, Marchena, Meira, Escalona
M: Miguel, Ednilson, Calado, Roger
F: Joao Tomas, Van Hooijdonk
 
Discussion starter · #8 ·
I agree with you Razor.

How about Roger?
In my opinion he didn't have enough time. But he needs to take a chill pill. He was a little too agressive. Thus got a yellow card. I know that he was trying to prove himself, but there are better ways to do so.

And shouldn't have Toni made some substitutions earlier??
Damn. The mistake was not winning the first game, which we could have. But at least now we're back in the race for the title. :)

Our players lacked heart and confidence today, but congrats to Porto for a pretty good game.
 
Apparently Sabry's brain flew ahead to join Egypt without taking his body. He started, but he was a non-factor and he was substituted at the half for Ricardo Esteves. In Sabry's defense, Benfica was reduced to 10 men and needed an addtional defender brought in (Diogo Luis @ left defense was sent off).

LE hit the nail on the head - I can forgive a poor showing like today. Any club can pull a no-show like Benfica did today. What tells me they're not real contenders is that they didn't put Porto away last Wednesday at the Luz when they had the chance. It was that lack of the killer instinct then that did them in, not the crap they pulled today.

I also agree with you on Roger (isn't this just one big love-in:)) - it's tough though; the coach puts you in with 20 minutes left to play, you're down 4-0 and your side only has 10 men. What do you do? The conditions and the situation prevent any real chance to set something up offensively, so he becomes overly agressive defensively. Was his yellow card stupid? Sure - but you'll rarely find me complaining when any offensive-oriented player hustles back and defends, as Roger appears to do on a regular basis. It's this same trait that would have put Miguel #4 on my "bright spots" list tonight. He didn't do a whole lot offensively, but I think he played an excellent game defensively.

The whole thing just snowballed once Ronaldo got his yellow. I think central defense is the most important position on a squad (I'm Italian, duh! :)) and everything goes well or gets worse from there. When Ronaldo had mailed it in mentally at the 20 minute mark, I knew it was going to be a long, long night.
 
This is how long a night it was...

FC Porto Benfica
Golos 4 0
Posse de Bola 29:22 20:31
Ataques 45 18
Cruzamentos 31 7
Remates-total 23 4
Remates dentro da área 18 1
Remates Ă  baliza 11 1
Cantos 15 4
Faltas Cometidas 19 23

Ouch! :eek: The numbers don't lie!
 
Discussion starter · #12 ·
Believe it or not, at the end of the first half I still believed Benfica could tie, and then go to extratime and maybe penalties. That would have been spectacular. But 5 minutes into the second half I knew that wouldn't happen.

They just didn't come out to win. I hate when they are afraid because they are at the Antas. They lost 4-0 without risking anything. What's up with all the missed passes? It must be the weather and the field. Although, Porto did play under the same conditions.

Better days will come. :)
 
Benfica was a disgrace today.

This team played worse than a 3rd division club. It mde me sick to watch. Benfica showed that their heart is not there. They thought the game would be handed to them after Sundays win. Porto came out fired up and showed how much Benfica didn't want it. Sure Porto played a good game but I think even Estrela Amadora could have lit them up.

Rojas was absolutely terrible. I sincerely hopes he never starts again.

Maniche was a ghost. He seems to never show up for these big games.

Diogo Luis should not have started. I don't understand the logic of his start.

Ronaldo was very poor. He showed us today how slow he really is and how our defense tends to fall asleep.

I do give credit to the azul. Folha, Capucho, and Paredes played excellent games.
 
quote* think over this week we have taken a step forward.....also did you see how pathetic they are....16,000 attendance for a porto v benfica cup match.....pathetic, typical them though!!!

good one slb..i guess that was the same thing the benfica players were thinking about throughout the game huh??
 
WTF is Toni thinking??

Why did he change the team that beat Porto??

Well at least now we just have to concentrate on the Championship! :)

Well the only good thing Heynckes did waas bring this great keeper to our team ROBERT ENKE!
 
We didn't stand a chance. Benfica was not mentally prepared for this game. After the first twenty minutes, everybody just wanted to go home.
 
Frankly I am pissed off to the back teeth.
First off razor i dont know how you know i listened to the game but i did, however i have seen the game in full on video now.
Now why am i sooooooooooooooooooooo pissed off, well the same people who were going on about how great benfica were on sunday and how we were going to win the c'ship are now the same saying that we are crap and and that we will be lucky to be top 5. (for the record i think we can still win the c'ship, although it will take a huge effort) Now its only 2 ****ing days difference and yet we are two completely different teams.
First off porto were amazing and 4-0 flatters us really, however i refuse to congratulate them, as i dont congratulate anything i hate.
Now lets look at the statistics before the game, porto 100% home record in the league whilst we have won 2 away from home all season. Oh and we havnt won nas antas since erickson. Now porto were always going to be favourites and losing 2-1 with a 90 th minute porto goal or getting thrashed 4-0 in the cup is the same...as the final result will be elimination. As for its only the cup....Please you wouldnt have been saying that if we had won, the cup is a prestigous competition that any club team wants to win.
Ok now ive heard toni being criticised, toni this and toni that...bollox....come on i bet these were the same people prasing toni on sunday, he suddenly becomes a bad manager in 2 days....If you say so!! The only thing i would question was bringing roger on, but i suppose he needs to improve his fitness somehow, maybe bringing on esteves for sabry at 3-0 was unwise if still in the hunt for a victory, but toni knows best and if he felt that keeping the score down was best and avoid 7 or 8 then so be it.
Next Ronaldo, first off I dont know why this guy is captain....but....as a player, please let the contract nogotiations fail, I mean the guy is sooooooooo slow its not even funny....btw, this is not an assesment of yesterdy but rather of his whole career at benfica.
Rojas, i ve said this before and i'll say it again what has this guy done to deserve to play for benfica.
To the people who cliam what was toni doing changing the team....you probably are the people who would have said why didnt toni change the team if we had played the same and lost. Remember...basically the same team played 3 games against porto in 6 days whilst most of porto played 2.
Ok , the attendance, rain or no rain, wind or no wind....16,000 for a cup game between two teams who claim to hate eachother is absolutely pathetic. Do you rememeber when we played salgueiros last season winning 1-0....There was an absolute downpoor, worse than yesterdays yet we managed 40,000 against a team we have no rivalry with. Sorry but weather is not an excuse as for dragaoazul i very much doubt thats what the benfica players were thinking but, it does bear badly on porto (and on portuguese football) that they can only muster up 16,000.
 
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