Monday 21 March 2011

P.Ferreira 1 Benfica 5 Nuno Gomes shines

Pacos De Ferreira 1 Benfica 5

Benfica managed a sweet victory against a team that have so far been doing well in the league, the team from the Porto region however failed to apply the early needed pressure on Benfica, and inside four minutes, Javier Cohene seemed to catch Javi Garcia on the head and a penalty for Benfica, with Cardozo bravely stepping up to make it 1-0.
On the 13th minute after a team passing move, Gaitan connected well with Aimar, who put the ball past a helpless Cassio for 2-0.
the Eagles went ahead again on the 25th minute when Nico Gaitan from 35 yards out placed the ball on the top left corner with almost no pressure, and with such ease that he hardly felt like celebrating.


Pacos managed to grab one back when new boy Carole (yes its a boy) uknowigly directed the ball into his own net.
The team from the north finally got some grip on the game and pressed Benfica until the half time, managing to go close a couple of times, and forcing Roberto into some magnificent saves.
in the second half was a similar performance with the hosts finding the gaps, and creating chances with Benfica equally wasting them.
on the 77th minute with the introduction of Nuno Gomes the Reds looked a bit more capable upfront with the crowd cheering on and screaming for the man, and it didn't take long for the Benfica 'old boy' to get off the mark, and on the 82nd minute from the second attempt at goal.

Nuno Gomes made it 4-1 and then after playing off the last man on the 90th he finished for 5-1.

A performance that started well for Benfica, but died soon after the 3rd goal, and with some chances not being finished, the team had to count on their long serving striker to come off the bench and show some established strikers how to finish.

I for one would love to see Cardozo in games like this perform better, despite scoring a penalty, the Benfica hitman has failed to fire the bullets with the same accuracy that he had last season, and at times looking lazy.
Jorger Jesus for the tough man he is, should learn to accept that, despite having players like Kardec on the bench and an under performing Cardozo, sometimes an old head just knows better, as he has shown in the last 2 league games.
The tactics were about right but somehow the team were lacklustre in the middle part of the game, at times the leadership from the back isn't felt upfront.

But a happy day for any Benfica fan, a good over all win to ensure that 'Os Andrades' will not win the title in our back yard when Benfica will 'roast' FC Porto for the next round of the Liga Zon Sagres.

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