Naval - Benfica Preview

It's back to the domestic fight for Benfica this Sunday, with a match away against Naval. Naval is currently 12th in the Bwin with a record of 5 wins, 9 losses and 4 ties. Their home record is 2 wins, 2 losses, and 4 ties. They are the third worst defense of the Bwin with 27 goals suffered. In the first round, Benfica beat Naval in a convincing fashion by the score of 3-0, in what it was probably one of the better performances of the season so far.

For the game against Naval Camacho has called the following players:

Keepers:Butt and Quim
Defenders: Luís Filipe, Luisão, Léo, Zoro, Edcarlos and Sepsi
Midfielders: Katsouranis, Rui Costa, Cristian Rodriguez, Binya, Nuno Assis, Maxi Pereira, Freddy Adu and David Simão
Forwards: Cardozo, Mantorras and Makukula

Absent from the game roster are David Luiz, Nelson and Petit. David Luiz is still recovering from an earlier ankle sprain. The Brazilian spoke to Benfica's physio and he expressed lack of confidence in his ankle's full recovery, so Camacho has opted to leave him out. Di Maria serves a one game suspension after picking up his 5th yellow.
Nelson got hurt in the game against Nurnberg and had to get stitches after the game on his foot. Petit continues to struggle with injury and is not 100% for the match.
Returning to the game roster are the 2 CAN 08 players, Zoro and Binya. Maxi also returns from his myalgia. Camacho called up was junior David Simao as the 19th player. Katsouranis had some complaints from an injury suffered against Nurnberg and he is going to be a game time decision, the Junior was called as a precaution.

Projected line up - Quim in goal, Luis Felipe, Luisao, Edcarlos and Leo. Binya will make his return to the starting line up as one of the defensive midfielders. Question remains on whether Camacho will sacrifice another d-mid to play with two forwards or if he will play 2 d-mids with Katsouranis or Maxi( in case Katsou can't go).
In either case, the usage of either player might be a risky move, as both players seem to not be 100%.
Rui Costa will be in the middle, while on the flanks, Rodriguez and Assis will most likely be the starters, but that will all depend on Maxi, and whether or not he plays and where.
Up Front, Makukula will get the start while Cardozo seems likely to be relegated to the bench if Camacho goes to the 4-2-3-1. Camacho will have to consider a few things when setting up the team, one of them being the fact that the team played this past Thursday and has another match mid-week, Camacho will try his best to manage the team, perhaps a good opportunity to give more minutes to Adu.

Camacho's pre-game talk will most likely involve a "put the game away early" message, as the game will not only be more manageable when Benfica goes ahead early, but it will also serve to rest some players ahead of next week's Uefa Cup match.

It's not a very hard game for Benfica on paper, and Benfica has done very well playing away, but with Benfica's current form and lack of confidence, anything can be expected. Let's hope the team comes out strong and puts away the early.

Oh yeah, more minutes for Adu please.


Last round it was like this:
Click on the thumbnail to make it big - Source - zerozero.pt

Highlights