Benfica - Espanhol.

After Espanhol winning the first leg 3-2, (3-0 at one stage), the second game is evenly balanced for another exciting game, in front of 60,000+ fans, in Benfica's cathedral. 19h45 kick off. (Why so bloody early? I have no idea.)

Reported line ups are.

Benfica,
.............................Quim
..Nélson.....David Luiz.......Katsouranis..(Anderson).....Léo
............................Petit
..Karagounis.(Katsouranis)....Rui Costa
............................Simão
..........Nuno Gomes.........Miccoli.

Espanhol,
.............................Gorka
.Zabaleta.......Jarque......Torregó..........Chica
....................Moisé.........Ito
.Luis Garcia........De La Peña.......Riera
.........................Pandiani.


With the Uefa cup top goalscorer (Pandiani) in their line-up, Benfica will have to be very careful defending. Being without Luisão in this important period of games has cost Benfica. Young replacement David Luiz, has shown lots of promise, but, he is always likely to make inexperience errors. After going 3-0 down in the first game, Benfica reverted to the diamond midfield, which has served them well this season, playing with 5 skillful attacking players. After which they recuperated two goals, had an obvious penalty declined, and Gorka made several very good defences. But, before the end of the game, Quim also had to do two good defences.

I will be off to the game, and I'm sure I carry with me all of your hopes that Benfica can overcome the hated Espanhol.

Benfica to win 1-0 with a Rui Costa strike

We have to start the game with the same mentality that Utd did against Roma. Lets try and score in the first 15 and hopefully be 2-0 at half time.

I am hoping that Fernando Santos has learned that the diamond formation is the best for Benfica at the moment and sticks with it from the begining. I am not that sure that he will put Katsouranis in the back four.

Rui is not ready for 90 minutes of football and that will mean that if we start with Katsouranis at the back and Rui from the start that he will be replaced half way through the game which means disturbing the set up again.

I am confident of a 3-0 victory to set us up against Werder Bremen. Fingers crossed.

PS - Enjoy the game Johninho and that Benfica wins (even if they are not the best team)... Just remembered the famous Vata goal that put us through, was it against Marseille??

Forca Benfica, faz-nos orgulhosos!!!!

Great memories, Vata's great goal against Marselha. When we scored my feet were in the air, and didn't land until 10minutes after.

Every quarter final game starts that early! It for commercial reasons! I hope Benfica to win but Spanish teams are always difficult to beat for the Portuguese!

Absolutely ludicrous. Should have won this game. We are a team on the last legs.
Oh well

Very tough on Benfica, amazing how some of those chances didn't go in!!! And that save of the Espanyol goalkeeper from Nuno Gomes...UNBELIEVABLE

Yeah, that save was unbelievable indeed, watched the highlights. Kudos to the Espanyol goalie, hope he won't repeat that against us...

Would have liked to play Benfica in the semis (I actually expected them to go through), but it didn't work out it seems. Sorry guys.

Espanyol look like a very physical team (compared to other Spanish sides), most of their players are rather unknown to me to be honest. But a team that has knocked out Benfica and others on their way to the semis must be dangerous, so I expect us not to underestimate them at all.

So it's Barcelona for us again this season. This time, hopefully with a better result for us...

Oh, I thought you were facing Sevilla...I guess this means the perfect final is still possible.

Basically the key to Espanyol is their front 3 or 4 - De La Pena can be classy when on form, and their strikers Raul Tamudo and Luis Garcia (even Pandiani) certainly know where the goal is, and can do more than just simple finishes. So a strong defensive performance will be key. At the other end, barring a string of amazing misses or world-class saves like Benfica suffered today, you should be able to score with all your offensive firepower.

Thank you for the infos kas, appreciated.

Hope that Pasanen continues to replace Mertesacker as well as he did tonight, then our defence should be solid. Our attack is gaining form, was brilliant yesterday, so I do expect that to be less of a problem.

And yes, facing Sevilla in the final is still possible, but we have to knock out Espanyol first. I expect Sevilla to go through against Osasuna.

Theoretically Sevilla shouldn't have trouble with Osasuna, but European games against teams from your own league never go according to league form. Added to that is another factor that I'll explain by borrowing Jose Mourinho's words - Osasuna will only play the UEFA Cup, whereas Sevilla play in the league, Copa Del Rey, and the UEFA Cup as well.

Werder Bremen should wipe the floor with Espanyol! Benfica has not gone through because we were poor, simple as that!

Nelson, Leo, Derlei and Mantorras are not good enough for a team like Benfica. They might do the trick sometimes in the portuguese league, but in Europe they are weak players.

Simao was rubbish last night, did one or two things but in the whole was innexistent.

Rui Costa in the other hand was immense, specially in the second half. Cant believe we are out against a mediocre team like Espanyol but hey such is life.

Now can anyone explain to me why, we are losing the tie and we are going to replace one striker with another??? And then minutes from the end, we take right back and Karagounis, which was the most consistent of all our players, and replace them with Derlei (which is crap) and a defensive midfielder???

We havent lost the tie because of it, but the substitutions were crap!

Luck, good or bad had nothing to do with last nights result. Espanhol also had a shot/cross against the post, and what looked a penalty tackle by Léo refused. Neither Espanhol is a rubbish team. In the first half they showed, almost 100% perfectly, how to play a pressing game. No Benfica player had the time or space to do anything, as soon as the ball arrive to his feet, arrive also 2/3 players of Espanhol. As Lampião wrote, what we saw was a team on it's last legs. It's Benfica's big weakness, the lack of substitutes. To try to win two competitions you need a plantel bigger than 14 players. The only area were we have strength sufficient is goalkeeper.
Benfica did their usual performance, which is often good enough to win games, of playing mediocre, with 10 minutes of excellent football. Last nights 10 minutes produced two efforts against the post, and a good save against Nuno Gomes. Pity he is playing better than 2/3 weeks ago, when he wouldn't have got to the ball, leaving Simão with an easy tap in.
I think it's unfair to criticise any of the players, that all gave their best, or the substitutions of Santos. That's all he's got to work with, and considering that, he's dirigering the team well.