Getafe 1 - Benfica 0 - Adios UEFA

#Photo - Bernat Armangue - AP

Benfica finally say goodbye to European competition, after losing 1-0 to Spaniards Getafe. Amidst a troubling week, with a home tie against last place Leiria, which resulted in Camacho's voluntary step down, Benfica added another layer of dirt to their 07/08 season burial with their elimination from the UEFA Cup.
Despite being down 1-2 on aggregate, Benfica could have very well turned the aggregate around, after all, Getafe is a middle of the table team in la Liga and a team that is only 24 years old with a little more than 20,000 registered fans.
I am by no means trying to say that Benfica is better than Getafe,for those reasons or should have beaten the small Getafe, I'm just saying that Getafe was the better team spanning the 2 games and they deserved to win.


Perhaps you can find some logic for Benfica's elimination in the disparity between the two leagues. How a 10th place team from La Liga could dominate the second place team of the Bwin, and the fact that Getafe has a bigger payroll than Benfica.
And yes there is a logic to that, but that can automatically be an excuse for conformism for many Benfiquistas.
The truth is that Benfica should have easily eliminated Getafe, but considering the ups and down, the injuries, the lack of some kind of a game style among the other things made this elimination a reality. At the time we eliminated Nurnberg, there were many, myself included, that though that playing the same quality of soccer we played against Nurnberg against Getafe, would mean that it would be a much harder task, if not impossible, to get into the quarter finals by beating Getafe.
All and all it's a just ending, the image Benfica have given us this season have made us realize the overall quality of the team, and its obvious limitations.
Too long of a topic to go into right now.

On to the game

Chalana's first 11 wasn't much of a surprise, I think Camacho would have done the same with the same men available.

Quim in goal; Nelson, Katsouranis, Edcarlos and Leo as the back four, Petit as the only defensive midfielder; Rui Costa, Maxi and Rodriguez the attacking midfielders supporting Nuno Gomes and Makukula up front.

A classic 4-4-2, but with a different look from the few 4-4-2s we have seen this season. Maxi and Rodriguez, positioned themselves closer to Rui Costa in the middle, in an act to provide Rui Costa more support. The wings were left free for Nelson and Leo, in an attempt to create mismatches with their forward runs.

Benfica started strong and even created a few opporunities, one in particular an incredible miss by Makukula who mis-kicked a ball that hit the post. The first 25 minutes, Benfica commanded the whole game and tried to create something with changes of pace in the attack, but a well organized Getafe knew what to expect and alllowed Benfica to have the initiative, as they sat behind the ball closing off the middle and Rui Costa's playing. Getafe would occasionally come into the attack, but always in counter attacks, that was their strategy, close down in the defense, counter to take advantage of any type of over zealousness from Benfica.
From the 30 minute mark, Benfica's initial all out attack seemed to have lost some of its steam, and Getafe little by little asserted themselves, having even gone to halftime being the controlling team. Benfica's initial pressure was defended well and Benfica seemed to have run out of fresh ideas to penetrate. Up front Makukula and Nuno Gomes, showed a lack of competitive rhythm, they too, were not offering goal scoring solutions. Rodriguez and Leo were clearly the more offensive men in Benfica in the first half, Rui Costa wasn't the dominating player he usually is, much because how Getafe was closing down the spaces and passing lanes.

In the second half Benfica began just like they finished the first, a team without solutions, a team that with every minute that went by, saw themselves slipping away.
At the 59th minute mark, Chalana took the underachiever Maxi out and put DiMaria in his place, but even the creativity he though DiMaria would bring to the game was non existent and proved to be another failed solution, much because of the Argentine's continued inability to play a simple soccer. Chalana would later make 2 other substitutions Mantorras came in for Nuno Gomes(66m)and Sepsi would come in for Edcarlos (74m), while the first one came in to refresh the position, Sepsi came in as another attacking solution. With nothing to lose, Benfica now played with 3 defenders while Sepsi joined in the left of the midfield. It was shortly after that period that Getafe put away Benfica for good, a through ball for Katsouranis to outrace the much faster Albin, finished with the Uruguayn chipping the ball over an oncoming Quim.

The sentence was handed out. Maybe the game would have gone differently if Makukula had put away that ball that hit the post, the truth is that once Benfica was shutdown, they saw themselves without alternatives and ideas, and that provided for a stale second half for Benfica, the type we have seen so many times this season.

Individually, I wanted to mention Leo, Rodriguez and Quim, as the players who really performed above and beyond.
There was an article in today's paper that spoke of Benfica's interest in Diego Cavallieri, Palmeiras' current goalie. If there's any truth that, I have to wonder why would Benfica want to buy another goalie, when they have in goal the best Portuguese keeper and on the bench, a man that is supposedly the future goalkeeper of Benfica? No, not Butt, the other porkchop that's there, Moreira.

Benfica closes down another competition front, there's now only one more left, it's not too late to change things up a bit, to make us more competitive for that front, off course, the second place in the Bwin is far from secure, just keeping that second place will require a change of its own.
Nuno Gomes(responding to Camacho) told the media that maybe it's lack of talent that this team has, but it's not lack of motivation, well it's time they show us that. (The motivation part, because the talent we all know which players lack it)

I liked Chalana's first time, i found the change in Maxi's and Rodriguez's positioning very interesting. It allowed Benfica to play a supported type of soccer in the midfield which allowed for longer possession periods, something that Benfica lacked. The substitutions were done at the right time, and considering what Chalana had on the bench, the substitutions were also the best he could have made.
It's not going to be an overnight change, or a even a week, but we will soon see Chalana's touch on Benfica. Let's hope he can see something that Camacho never saw in Freddy Adu, after all, he was the man that turned Valencia's Miguel into a right back.