Saturday, October 27, 2007

Benfica - Maritimo Preview

Benfica faces a very important domestic clash this Sunday against Maritimo, Maritimo is currently 4th, one point ahead of Benfica and have been one of the surprise teams so far. Benfica needs to win if they want to establish themselves as contenders. Coming off a very important win for the Champion's League this past Wednesday, Benfica will need to build on the momentum.
Let's take a look at the players Camacho called up for this match:
Keepers:
Quim and Butt
Defenders: Maxi Pereira, Luis Filipe, Luisão, Edcarlos, Zoro, Léo, e Miguelito. Camacho called up Miguelito as Miguel Victor is currently on under-19 national team duty.
Midfielders: Katsouranis, Binya, Rui Costa, Cristían Rodriguez, Fábio Coentrão, Coentrao also makes his return to the call up sheet, also because of Romeu Ribeiro's National team call up. Nuno Assis has a cold and has not practice the past couple of days.
Forwards: Adu, Di Maria, Bergessio e Cardozo.
Looking at this list of players i'm projecting the following 11:
Quim
Maxi, Luisao, Edcarlos, Leo. Edcarlos returns to the middle of the defense after an injury, he was not 100% for the champion's league, but he will be fit enough for this game. Leo who also picked up a knock midweek seems to be back to full strenght and ready to go.
The midfield is a big question mark at this point. I'm thinking Rui Costa, Binya, Rodriguez and Katsouranis, with the Greek playing on the right side. The other option is the inclusion of Di Maria in the midfield line and playing with 2 defensive mids and one lone strike up front.
Cardozo will definitely start up front, question is, who will play the supporting role? I can't fathom Bergessio starting. Cardozo perfomed a whole lot better when Bergessio was subbed during the game against Celtic, i hardly doubt he will make it to the starting line up.. So my doubts lie on how Camacho will set the team, will it be 2 defensive mids giving more freedom to Rui Costa, but sacrificing the striker to the right side, or will it be 1 defensive mid with Katsouranis falling to the right side while Di Maria will play the striker role?
benfica is home and will have the full support of their fans, Oscar Cardozo will be well received and applauded by the fans after his goal against Celtica. We are hoping the 9 million dollar Cardozo is finally starting to show why he was Benfica's most expensive acquisition this season
Perdiction 2-0 (Katsouranis and Cardozo)

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