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Oliver_Kahn is
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Liga Sagres, MD 2: Benfica vs Porto
FT: Benfica 1-1 Porto (Lucho (pen) 11'; Cardozo 55')
line-ups:
Benfica
..................Quim
Maxi....Katsou...Luisao....Leo
......C.Martins......Yebda
Reyes.......Aimar.......Di Maria
..............Cardozo
Porto
...........................Helton
Sapunaru....Rolando...B.Alves....Fucile
..........................Fernando
T.Costa....Lucho.....Meireles....Rodriguez
..........................Lisandro
Benfica with the predictable 4231, with Reyes and Di Maria on the wings and Aimar supporting Cardozo. To counter this, Jesualdo tried a 4141, with Fernando as DM man-marking Aimar, T.Costa covering the right side, Rodriguez covering the left side, Meireles in a deeper role and Lucho with a free role, roaming behind Lisandro. This formation worked very well, good job there, Jesualdo planned this to perfection.
In the first-half, I thought we played some good football and had a lot more of the ball, created 2/3 very good chances. We scored first on the 10th minute, Bruno Alves sent a long ball to Lucho whose shirt was being pulled by Katsouranis - clear penalty - which Lucho scored. Benfica then tried to score the equalizer and had 2 very good consecutive chances, the first was a free-kick to Reyes who saw his shot blocked by Bruno Alves; then on the corner, Cardozo got a header in, but Lisandro cleared the ball on the line. Until the end of the first-half, we had 2 great chances, a shot from Rodriguez which Quim saved and Lisandro hit the post.
In the second-half, Jesualdo decided to brought on Guarin for Tomas Costa, which wasn't a great sub in my opinion, as Costa was having a good game, but this wasn't a difference maker in the end. We nearly scored on the opening minutes, when Guarin tackle Katsou and then sent a cross to Lisandro, who shockingly missed. Benfica played better than us in the first 10-15 minutes of the second-half and got a deserved goal: cross from the left by Yebda, Helton missed the clearance and gave Cardozo a great "assist" for the equalizer. Jesualdo then brought on Hulk for Fernando, who had 2 good plays, both long range shots which Quim saved. Our last sub was Candeias, but he brought nothing new to our game.
The match ended in a 1-1 draw, which was probably the right result. I'm a bit disappointed though, I thought we could have won tonight. Porto were never a dominant force in this match, at times it were Benfica who had the upper hand, but after Katsou was sent off and Jesualdo brought on Hulk & Candeias, we had the chance to kill off an exhausted Benfica team. But we didn't, our players missed too many passes and were very selfish.
My ratings for the Porto players:
Helton - 4, he is 100% to blame on the goal and had a couple more bad moments throughout the match, like the one when he tried to dribble past Cardozo and nearly lost the ball. He no longer provides confidence to the defence and is a clear weak link, it's time he gets benched, that's enough of Helton as far as I'm concerned.
Sapunaru - 5, had problems whenever Di Maria or Leo had a go at him and gave no width to the flank. God I miss Bosingwa!
Rolando - 7, he had a very good game, little to no mistakes all match and never lost a single one-on-one situation throughout the match. He's won the place for me, he has everything a great CB needs.
B. Alves - 6, was solid as always, but just not as dominant nor as imposing as he usually is. No mistakes though and he sent the cross which got us the penalty.
Fucile - 5, this guy shouldn't start for a team like Porto. He was better defensively than Sapu, that's a fact, but he missed about 90% of all his passes and did something stupid whenever he went forward, for instance that dive in front of R.Amorim, which was embarrassing really.
Fernando - 6, did his job well, took care of Aimar during the first-half, but he barely contributed to the offense and he needs to work on his passing.
T. Costa - 6, he was competent defensively and tried to get involved in the offense as well. He wasn't amazing, but I thought subbing him off was a mistake.
R. Meireles - 5, did a good job defensively, but I thought he should have contributed more to the offense, he seemed to disappear at times.
Lucho - 8, had a great game I thought, my man of the match. He was absolutely brilliant in the first-half, he dictated the tempo and orchestrated our play, his tackling and passing was superb and he took the penalty very well.
Rodriguez - 7, he gave it all on the field, tried to ignore the pressure coming from the stands and I think he was one of our better players. had 2/3 great runs and could have scored a goal.
Lisandro - 7, ran his socks off as usual and could have easily scored a goal, had it not been for the post and then later his lack of composure. He needs to score a goal soon though.
Guarin - 4, started off well with an assist to Lisandro, but then faded away as the match went on. He missed far too many passes.
Hulk - 5, he had 2 nice plays, but other than that, he was very selfish on the ball and really pissed me off at times. He needs to learn how to the pass the ball.
Candeias - 3, was supposed to add some pace and creativity to our game, but he did neither, just rivaled Hulk for the award of most selfish player on the field.
Jesualdo: for the first time in I don't know how long, I cannot blame him for this draw. The formation he used was spot on and his subs were good tonight, it were the players' fault for not pressing in search of a goal, for sitting back when Katsou was sent off and for being too selfish on the ball.
All in all, not a bad result, winning a point at the Estádio da Luz is never bad.
__________________
A wise man once said:
Quote:
Try this out. When she is about to say yes or no, pull back and say, "nah, I change my mind" and sort of walk away.
See what she does then. You will have basically turned the tables on her. Tried this a few times, always works.
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"Well, that was fun... in a fuckin' terrible, sick, not-at-all-fun way."
Quote:
question: In what ocean are the Seychelles islands?
Pat Murphy: Caribbean ocean
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What do these people teach in Luton?
Ricardo Quaresma: forever a Porto legend. Thank you for all the memories.
Last edited by Oliver_Kahn : 31-08-2008 at 05:20 PM.
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