Late goals seal fifth win on the bounce for Benfica

Academica 1-3 Benfica

Benfica left it late to pull a win out of the bag against Academica. The Lisbon club had to come from a goal down after Lito had put the home side up.

Rui Costa equalised from a free kick but it needed two goals in the dying minutes from Luisao and Adu to give Benfica a 3-1 victory and, temporarily at least, move to within one point of Liga leaders FC Porto.

Some interesting notes prior to kick-off as Ricardo was making his debut for the Students, while Cristian Rodriguez and Maxi Pereira both sat out after international duty, making way for Nuno Assis and Luis Filipe.

After a listless opening, in the 24th minute Academica livened up the game with a goal resulting from a comedy of errors. A N’Doye free kick was completely miss-hit, but his weak shot was not cleared properly by Luis Filipe and landed at the feet of the unsuspecting Lito. The team’s leading scorer made no mistake from 12 yards out tucking the ball into the far corner.

Di Maria hits woodwork

Benfica came storming back and three minutes later Di Maria saw his effort clank off the crossbar with Nuno Gomes’s follow-up header well saved by Ricardo.

From another Benfica counter attack, Di Maria was fouled on the edge of the Academica box. A well worked move saw Di Maria touch a short pass to Leo, who teed up the ball for Rui Costa, and the maestro curled a stunning low strike around the wall and past Ricardo to even things up at one apiece.

The game then deteriorated in quality with abundant yellow cards and substitutions further breaking up the flow of play. Just when it seemed both teams were going to walk away with a point from a tedious display of football, Benfica struck in the 86th minute.

Debutant goalkeeper Ricardo over-committed himself from a Di Maria corner, completely missing his punch. The ball landed in the six-yard box where Luisao audaciously back-heeled it towards the open net. The scrambling Ricardo dived to swat away the danger but inadvertently deflected the ball into his own goal to give Benfica the lead with only minutes to play.

Adu on the mark

Benfica sealed victory in added time as Cardozo laid off a pass to teenage sensation, Freddy Adu, and the American collected the ball, took a couple of strides and struck his shot into the back off the net, with Ricardo again at badly fault. It is the American’s 5th goal for the Eagles in all competitions this season.

Camacho will be delighted with a fifth straight win in the League, but knows his side will have to play much better to have any chance of beating AC Milan on Wednesday in the Champions League. As for Academica, a paltry 8 points from 11 matches and a listless display suggests real relegation danger from the Coimbra club.

Academica:
Ricardo, Nuno Piloto, Litos, Kaka, Pedro Costa, Pavlovic (Helder Barbosa, 88), Paulo Sergio, NDoye, Lito, Vouho (Joeano, 60), Ivanildo (Miguel Pedro, 46)
Yellow Cards: Vouho (47), Paulo Sergio (75), NDoye (78), Ricardo (81), Litos (81)

Benfica:
Quim, Luis Filipe, Luisao, David Luiz, Leo, Katsouranis (Petit, 60), Binya, Nuno Assis (Cardozo, 10), Rui Costa, Di Maria, Nuno Gomes (Adu, 63)
Yellow Cards: Katsouranis (41), Luisao (64)

Goals:
[1-0] Lito, 24
[1-1] Rui Costa, 33
[1-2] Luisao, 86
[1-3] Adu, 92