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Late late show saves Benfica

Nuremberg 2-2 Benfica (agg. 3-2)

Benfica avoided some serious blushes as the Portuguese side had to rally late from a two goal deficit to snatch a draw against Nuremberg in dramatic fashion.

The Bundesliga side had looked primed to advance to the Round of 16 of the Uefa Cup when Charisteas and Saenko gave the home side a 2-0 lead, but Oscar Cardozo and Angel Di Maria scored in the space of three minutes at the death to push Benfica through with a 3-2 aggregate win.

Cardozo is quickly developing a reputation as being a clutch goalscorer by notching important and decisive goals when needed. The Paraguayan has now scored 16 goals in all competitions for the Eagles in his debut season with Benfica.

The Portuguese outfit started the match brightly as they looked to put away their German counterparts early. Although they did not create any clear-cut opportunities, Benfica enjoyed the majority of ball possession and attack.

All that almost went for nought as Nuremberg came close to nicking a late first-half goal, but Charisteas’ effort flew over the Benfica crossbar. The Portuguese team responded immediately when a Katsoruanis low drive went skimming just wide of the post.

Quim to the rescue

The hosts had one more good opportunity before the break as Saenko forced Quim into a fine save to keep the score at nil-nil.

Nuremberg broke the deadlock in the 58th minute when Charisteas redirected a long Mnari pass past Quim to put the home side level on aggregate. Nuremberg almost had a second goal six minutes later, but Pinola’s shot rattled off Benfica’s post.

The writing was on the wall for a shaky Benfica and the inevitable happened as the Benfica fans’ hearts sunk when Saenko doubled Nuremberg’s lead in the 66th minute. The midfielder took advantage of crass blunders by Benfica’s defence as he picked off a wayward Leo pass and Luis Filipe’s dreadful giveaway to grab the ball and dance past Quim to put the hosts up by two goals.

Something had to be done to salvage Benfica’s European hopes and Camacho brought on Cardozo and Sepsi for Edcarlos and Maxi Pereira, respectively. The moves almost paid off in the 74th minute as Sepsi found Cardozo in the box, but the Paraguayan’s shot went agonizingly wide.

Cardozo strikes

Just when it seemed to be all over, Cardozo latched onto a bouncing ball outside the Nuremberg box in the 89th minute and released a shot that hit the ground before bouncing into the net. In almost a carbon copy of the first leg, Blazek made a mess of the shot and allowed the ball to pass him to give Benfica that elusive goal which would send them through.

The icing on the comeback cake came in added time as another late substitute, Di Maria, scored his first ever goal in a Benfica shirt when he received a superb Leo pass and easily skipped past Blazek to score the insurance goal.

Benfica will now take on Getafe in the last 16, but must reproduce their first-half performance from last night because if the team plays like they did in the second half, the Spanish side are sure to send them packing.

Nuremberg:
Blazek, Reinhardt, Glauber, Wolf, Pinola, Saenko, Galasek, Mnari (Abardonado, 87), Engelhardt, Charisteas, Koller
Yellow Cards: Pinola

Benfica:
Quim, Luis Filipe, Luisao, Edcarlos (Cardozo, 70), Leo, Katsouranis, Petit, Maxi Pereira (Sepsi, 70), Rui Costa, Nuno Assis (Di Maria, 81), Makukula
Yellow Cards: Leo, Maxi Pereira, Luis Filipe, Makukula, Petit

Goals:
[1-0] Charisteas, 58
[2-0] Saenko, 66
[2-1] Cardozo, 89
[2-2] Di Maria, 92