P Ferreira 1 - Benfica 2

Tough game, tough win. Sometimes i think that the difference in the end, when all the points are tallied and there's 3 games left in championship, are the 3 points earned in games like these. It wasn't one of the better performances but in the end the 3 points are a just reward to the team's drive, commitment and desire to win. I think on desire alone Benfica deserved to win, the team fought to the last minute and it wasn't always a pretty fight but in the end they managed to come away with 3 precious points. As many of you know it's not easy to play away at the Mata Real, the field is small and Pacos usually plays a very good compact game at home.
Camacho started the following 11:
Quim - the Portuguese international made his return to goal, there was some speculation up until Friday if Quim would get the notch, but Camacho cleared up all speculation when he told the media on friday that Quim would be back in goal.
On defense Camacho started Luis Felipe , Luisao, Katsouranis and Leo - Opting for the Greek international was clearly a sign of a need for more consistency. Katsouranis has played more times in this position than his native defensive mid, he has played the position well and is currently going through a period of good form. The inclusion of Luis Felipe had nothing to do with his quality but more of a need to put Maxi in the midfield role. Luis Felipe continues to show why he is not a player for Benfica, he lacks quality, he can not cross the ball to save his life.
In midfield, Camacho opted to give Assis a chance to play as the supporting forward, roaming the attacking third in a supportive position to Cardozo. With this in mind and with the fact that Rui Costa is a player that needs to have creative freedom, Maxi was the best choice for the midfield, he is a player that can defend well and is a player that will chase,therefore, giving the midfield line another defensive player in addition to Binya while the other 3 (Rui Costa, Rodriguez and Assis) are given attacking priority. Cardozo played alone up front and was often unsupported.
Benfica dominated the first 15 minutes until Pacos figured out the markings, when they did, they were able to even up the game and organize themselves to defend as well as counter attack Benfica. Benfica's goal comes from a dead ball situation, a well placed ball into the box where Rodriguez puts the ball in the furthest upper ninety ( see it here). Pacos did not look down and ended up tying( see it here) the game 8 minutes later, I still don't understand how Assis defends that corner. Half-time came and the score was more than fair, Benfica came out dominating, scored the goal and didn't do much else for the rest of the half. In the second half Camacho subbed Nuno Gomes for Maxi, needing another area player to apply the pressure on the Pacos defense, Assis came back to occupy the right mid slot. Benfica did put more pressure on the Pacos team which by this time was starting to show signs of fatigue and clearly wanting to hold on to the result Cardozo did have a couple good combinations with Nuno Gomes, knocking down a few headers for Nuno Gomes to distribute. Di Maria came on for Assis in hopes of providing an extra push into the final third but to no avail. In hopes of another point saving goal, Camacho subbed Cardozo for Adu. The game winner would eventually show up at the 85th minute but not from Adu, from Katsouranis. An almost identical free kick with Rodriguez once again heading the ball, except this time the keeper half saved the ball and Katsouranis pounced on the rebound.
It was a very hard game, not a very good performance, but the players now believe that if they fight to the end they will eventually end up being rewarded, with this type of mentality it'll be hard to count Benfica out.
We gained 2 points on Porto and are now 6 points from first, with home and away clashes agains Porto yet to be played, I'd say at this point Benfica controls their destiny.
Coming up, a very important crucial match against Celtic in Glasgow for the Champions League.