Leiria draw spells end for Benfica boss Camacho

Benfica 2-2 Leiria

Benfica reached perhaps the pinnacle of their crisis when they drew 2-2 at home to last-placed Uniao de Leiria. The draw had immediate repercussions as Benfica’s coach, Jose Antonio Camacho, resigned from his post shortly after the full-time whistle had blown.

Paulo Cesar opened the scoring for the visitors, but Benfica turned around the scoreline thanks to goals by Marco Zoro and Cardozo. However, N’Gal sneaked in the equalising goal to earn Leiria only their 3rd point away from home all season.

The draw means that Benfica have yet to win a home match in 2008. The team have lost a total of 15 points at the Estadio da Luz, a major reason explaining why they are so far behind league leaders FC Porto in the championship.

A good start to the game saw a constant ebb and flow of attack and onlookers would never have known that Leiria were rock bottom in the table given the energy and enterprise of their play.

But it was Benfica who came close first in the 26th minute when Cristian Rodriguez’s left-footed effort hit the crossbar. Ten minutes later Nuno Gomes failed to put the home side up as he missed a Cardozo pass by inches.

For all Benfica’s huffing and puffing, it was Leiria who scored first, in the 42nd minute, as Paulo Cesar beat Luis Filipe to a N’Gal cross and slid the ball past Quim.

Benfica started the second half with all out attack, looking for a quick equaliser. Their efforts paid off in the 52nd minute when Marco Zoro notched his first goal in a Benfica shirt, heading a Rui Costa corner past Fernando to tie the game.

The home side took the lead four minutes later when Cardozo scored a scorcher as he beat Fernando with one of his trademark free kicks. The goal for the Paraguayan international is his 18th in his debut season with the Lisbon outfit.

The goals did not seem to affect the visitors as they came right back into the game, as N’Gal saw his effort beat Quim in the 62nd minute, but not the crossbar.

Leiria’s persistence paid off in the 70th minute as N’Gal was the benefactor of some comical defending by Quim and Zoro as the two Benfica players got their signals mixed up and collided with one another, allowing N’Gal to walk in all alone with an open net to make it 2-2.

Both teams pushed for the winning goal, but had to settle for a draw, which did not bother Leiria one bit. As for Benfica, there are bigger issues at hand and the players have to look at themselves and ask questions as to where it all went wrong.

Benfica:
Quim, Luis Filipe, Marco Zoro (Sepsi, 73), Edcarlos, Leo, Binya, Rui Costa, Di Maria (Nuno Assis, 79), Cristian Rodriguez, Nuno Gomes (Mantorras, 79), Cardozo
Yellow Cards: Quim (62), Luis Filipe (67), Nuno Assis (83)

Uniao de Leiria:
Fernando, Eder, Bruno Miguel, Lopes, Tiago (Lukasiewicz, 83), Sougou (Tonito, 84), Harison, Arvid Smit, Paulo Cesar (Faria, 90), N’Gal
Yellow Cards: Eder (9), Sougou (82)

Goals:
[0-1] Paulo Cesar, 42
[1-1] Marco Zoro, 54
[2-1] Cardozo, 56
[2-2] N’Gal, 70