Maritimo - Benfica Preview

With second place at risk, Benfica travels to the island of Madeira to face Maritimo this Sunday. After bowing out of Europe, Benfica now faces and equally important period of the season, when every game will be looked at as a final. With seven games left in the Bwin and Guimaraes bitting at the heels, Benfica will need to find away to put a run together until the end of the season, if they are to meet their goal of automatically qualifying for the Champions League. Maritimo is currently 8th in the Bwin and have had a decent year that saw its best moments in the beginning of the season, nonetheless, playing at home, Maritimo is always a tough opponent.

With his second game roster list this year, Chalana has called the following players:

Keepers: Quim and Butt;

Defenders: Luís Filipe, Katsouranis, Nelson, Léo, Edcarlos, Sepsi and Wagner;

Midfielders: Petit, Rui Costa, Rodriguez, Maxi Pereira, Binya, Di Maria, André Carvalhas;

Avançados: Nuno Gomes, Mantorras, Makukula, Cardozo.

Not much change since last Wednesday's list, with the only new face being the junior center back Wagner. Cardozo and Binya return after their European suspensions. Still suffering from injury are: Luisao, David Luiz, Assis and Zoro continue to recuperate from theirs injuries.

It'll be the the first time we'll be able to see where Chalana differs from Camacho. While the personnel shouldn't change much, the formation will be a tell tale factor to find out Chalana's ideology. 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2, that will be the big question. While in Spain Chalana didn't have much of a choice, back in the Bwin under "normal" circumstances it'll be interesting to see.
Being an offensive player himself,in his playing years, Chalana likes a more attack minded game, which means he will be most likely field 2 forwards in his Bwin debut.

Projecting a 4-4-2 it will look something like this:
Quim in goal; Nelson, Katsouranis, Edcarlos and Leo in the back. The one defensive midfielder will be Bynia. Petit is not in his best condition and Binya is the best choice. "Names" don't play, form does. Let's see if Chalana thinks the same.
The midfield trio will be Rui Costa, Rodriguez and Maxi, but it wouldn't surprise me much if Sepsi got the start in the left wing, pushing Rodriguez to the right in detriment of Maxi. Up front, it'll be Cardozo and either Makukula or Nuno Gomes. A more balanced front line would include Nuno Gomes, as Nuno Gomes and Cardozo have styles that complement each other. Makukula plays the same style as Cardozo and it would make the front line, one dimensional.
It's true that returning to his former club, Makukula might have extra motivation, but at this point of the season every player should have extra motivation, whether or not that motivation was questioned as recently as last Wednesday.
The start should go to Nuno Gomes, despite being very far from decent form, Nuno Gomes will get the start for the above mentioned reason - balance.

Benfica is trying hard to take control of their season, and stop what it seems to be the start of a downward spiral. After tying at home to last place Leiria, Camacho stepping down, and crashing out of Europe, Benfica now sees Guimaraes in a provisional second place and needing to win to re-take that second place.
It's time to reach down, if there's any chance of saving what remains of the season.
Chalana closed the door of Benfica's training session, for the first time this season, another departure from the Camacho days, who worked everyday under the public and media eye, a clear sign that he wants maximum focus from the players to the task at hand. There's not much else to say, Benfica needs to outright win. We all know the team has its limitations, the injuries haven't helped much either, but this is where the team needs to unite and find a way to get the boat back on it's course, despite everything that affects the team.
While the League is a mirage, second place and the Portuguese Cup are realistic goals and should be the focus of the team. Benfica will need to find a bit of consistency and build on it, only that consistency will help them save what's left of the season.

A little curiosity, Chalana will not be listed as "coach" in the game report, as he does not posses a Level 4 Coaching certification, Sheu Han(Benfica's Assistant) will be the name that will appear as coach in the game report.

Last Round:
Perhaps one of Benfica's biggest wins of the season. Freddy Adu claims his goal against Maritimo was the highlight of the season for him so far this season.

Extended Highlights

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How I Saw it