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| Sunday, 15 August 2010 21:34 |
Last-gasp wonder goal sinks Benfica at the LuzBenfica 1-2 Academica
Benfica, unbeaten at home all last season, fell to a shock defeat in their 2010/11 opener against Academica. Miguel Fidalgo gave the Estudantes an interval lead, but Addy’s sending off and Jara’s equaliser triggered a furious spell of pressure from the Portuguese champions.
However, Jorge Costa’s side held out heroically and in stoppage time a brilliant 35-metre Laionel shot flew into the net to stun the 50,000 strong crowd. Benfica started strongly, with Fabio Coentrao picking up where he left off in
Two minutes later the visitors took the lead as Miguel Fidalgo got his head to a cross with Benfica’s defence guilty of ball-watching. Up until the break Benfica failed to create any chances as the increasingly restless crowd showed their displeasure, especially with a succession of poor passes from Peixoto and Sidnei.
Addy sees red
Jorge Jesus left Peixoto in the changing room at half time, bringing on new Argentine striker Jara. The game completely changed complexion shortly after the break as young Ghanian left-back, Addy, who had looked solid until that point, lost his head and picked up two yellow cards in a minute and was forced to take an early bath.
Benfica cranked up the pressure and were soon level. Coentrao’s superb cross was turned into the net by Jara, and the goal signalled a cavalry charge towards Pieser’s net. Jara, David Luiz, Amorim, Coentrao and Javi Garcia all came close to putting the hosts ahead.
But there was a wicked twist in the tale to an entertaining game. Lionel picked up the ball just inside the Benfica half, looked up, saw Roberto off his line and hit a sweet 35-metre lob that flew over the Spaniard and into the net via the post to give Academica their third win at the Estadio da Luz in four seasons.
Watch Lionel’s wonder goal:
by Tom Kundert
Benfica:
Roberto, Maxi
Yellow Cards: Peixoto, David Luiz, Aimar, Ruben Amorim, Carlos Martins
Academica:
Peiser, Pedrinho, Orlando, Berger, David Ady, Diogo Melo, Nuno Coelho, Diogo Gomes, Sougou, Miguel Fidalgo (Laionel, 57), Diogo Valente (Pedro Costa, 57)
Yellow Cards: Sougou, Nuno Coelho, David Ady, Peiser
Red Card: Addy (51)
Goals:
[0-1] Miguel Fidalgo, 26
[1-1] Jara, 62
[1-2] Laionel, 91
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I just love to praise Fabio Coentrao I am so happy that he's a Benfica player and has developed into a great player and I hope he's at Benfica the next couple of years and can see that he will be Benfica's captain in the future.
Today's result isn't 100% on Roberto even though he's has had some criticism in the pre-season. Sidnei's marking Fidalgo's goal was terrible and we know he should of kept his man very disappointed in him. Benfica had so many chances to captialize in the second half. Now from what everyone is talking about is the last goal I got to say Roberto shouldn't of never been out of his net there was no reason to be but it was a great shot even though he was lucky to hit the post and in.
Now i'm not shook on the first game of the season I believe Roberto can turn into a better goalkeeper like c'mon remember when Luisao didn't have a good first year at Benfica then he becomes a great defender for us and repersents Brazil. Now i'm not surprised Portistas are acting cocky already they didn't even impress me with Naval getting a huge favour by the referee but it will be a interesting season see y'all next week.
We didn't lose a game at home last season, and losing one in the first match of the season, is bad.
Let me by saying that I don't think that Braga could have ever sold Eduardo to Benfica, even if we offered 5 mil and up.
With that out of the way, Roberto wasn't having a bad game, until the last goal. Even though he was off his line, the shot was incredible. I know that Roberto will need time to adjust to teamates and surroundings. The problem is that he cost 8.5 mil and he's geting hammered, which will make it substancially harder. He has to remain the starter for the time being.
We really missed Luisao. It seems as if Sidney hasn't really improved from last season. He's was ball watching, like he did vs Liverpool last season, again, and it cost us a goal. I understood him backing off, on the winning goal, since he didn't want to get beat.
Please don't ask for Airton to start just yet. Garcia had great chemistry with the back four last season. Lets see how things go with Luisao back in there. Airton showed plenty of mistakes vs Porto.
As for the midfield, what can you say. I still think that Aimar is better off without Martins with him. Martins crowds the midfield, instead of pushing wide. I know that he's Portuguese and strikes a wonder strike, that always seems to not go in, every now an dthen, but that's about it. We need a wide player, and unfortunately Gaitan plays just like Martins, since he also pinches in. That's going to be a problem all year.
I would prefer that Jara start and Jesus goes with a 4-3-3. Coentrao has proven more than worthy in the back, and maybe he could work well with Jara or Saviola, up the flank. Keep Garcia as a holding mid and pair Aimar with either Gaitan and Martins, hope that one of the pairings works out.
Keep in mind that whoever comes in on a transfer will need time to adjust, which is also, not good.
Cardozo and Saviola shoudl be fine, especially with Gaitan creating space with his runs. Cardoz almost got to a deflection off the goalie in extra time, which would have given us the lead. He shoudl have slid for it. With the abundance of forwards, I wouldn't be surprised if he was sold.
We have quality, but lets hope that we could replace all the goals.
Wow, this one is going to take a while to accept. Veru rough start.
For all the Porto fans, they should settle down. They struggled plenty vs Naval, like they normally do. Last time I checked, this was week one.
I didn't see the Pacos-Sporting game but both Naval and Academica have both impressed me on the opening weekend and we could be in for a more competitive championship this year. I don't think we'll see the winner get 70+ points this season.
As for Benfica, the last time they won back-to-back titles was between 1982-1984. It takes a really great side to be able to accomplish that, never mind win 4 in a row or 5 in a row like Porto have done in recent years.
It's only the first week of the season but Benfica are going to have to show a big improvement and tackle the resposibility of the Champions League distraction and trying to fight for the title at the same time. Then we'll see just how good this Benfica side really is.
During those dominant Porto periods of success they lost key players too but managed to replace them with hungry new players and still defend their titles.
SupremoGino - don't make me laugh, Benfica were never a CL candidate in the first place.
I said sometime ago that Benfica without the best player of last season (Ramires) would be different. That's why they're running everywhere to capture a new complete and consistent defensive midfielder right now.
By the way... once again, proven that's so hard to give a red card for the red team. David Luiz gave with his elbow on Sougou on ref's beards... and nothing. The same old story.
If you remember last year we started off with a pretty poor draw at home and still went on to win the title. So we're only one point worst off than we were last year.
It was a tough opening weekend where all the big teams looked nervous apart from maybe Braga who seem to have less pressure on them, which is great and allows them to play some nice open football.
Lets face it, Sporting were unlucky as were Benfica and Porto only managed to win with a very dubious penalty decision so nothing has been decided yet boys!
Here's to a great season...
I won't fault Roberto for the 2nd goal. Even had he been stuck on his line that would have been nearly impossible to defend...just a ridiculously struck ball.