Benfica - Academica - Game Preview

It's back to work for Benfica this friday, when they open up the 26th round of the Bwin against Academica. Academica is currently in 13th place and fighting relegation. In the condition of visitor, Academica has only been able to win one game, while tying 4 and losing 7. Benfica continues to share second place with Guimaraes, but holds a tiny advantage due to their head to head matches. It'll be Benfica's turn to put the pressure on Guimaraes and Sporting with a win this weekend, as they will play first, contrary to the chain of events of last weekend, in which Benfica played last.


After a much agitated week, in which Chalana and president Luis Felipe Vieira criticized the poor refereeing Benfica has fallen victim of in the past couple of games, and hinted to an apparent underground campaign to let Guimaraes finish in second. Benfica can expect much of the public eye to be turned to this game and the performance of the man in the middle. Surely there will be no major incidents or blown calls, we can even expect calls that will overly favor Benfica. That is the way the system works.

Playing wise, Benfica has been playing better in each game, playing their best game of the season, this past weekend in my opinion.
Chalana has put the team playing an attractive type of futebol, something that Camacho wasn't able to do.

For this game, Chalana has called the following players:

Keepers: Quim e Butt;
Defenders: Nelson, Léo, Edcarlos, Luisão and Maxi Pereira;
Midfielders: Petit, Katsouranis, Rui Costa, Nuno Assis, Rodriguez, Binya and Di Maria;
Forwards: Nuno Gomes, Mantorras, Makukula and Cardozo;

Butt, Assis and Makukula make their return to the game roster, in detriment of Moreira, Luis Felipe and Sepsi. Freddy Adu continues to not be a part of Chalana's plans as he has not put a Benfica jersey on since the 2nd of March, right before he reported to USMNT camp for olympic qualifying.

Looking at the game roster we will most likely see the following starting 11:

Quim in goal, Luisao will more than likely make his return to the center of the defense along with Katsouranis, Nelson will be on the right, while Leo on the left.
In the midfield we shouldn't see much change, Petit, Maxi, Rui Costa and Rodriguez. Up front, Nuno Gomes and Cardozo. Against Boavista, Benfica became more dangerous when DiMaria took Maxi's spot, giving Benfica more width, depite that evident improvement, it's unlikely Chalana will got with DiMaria from the start as Maxi gives more consistency to the midfield when it needs to defend, a change that will perhaps happen sometime throughout the game.

Another "final" for Benfica, and while the Boavista game was a complicated, yet accessible game, Academica is more than accessible, and Benfica will need to win this game if they are to continue to remain in the hunt for the Champions League direct berth.
Off course, Estadio da Luz hasn't been the friendliest of places to Benfica this year, but i'm sure the team has shaken off that monkey, and they will come out strong once again and continue to play at the the level they have shown these past couple of games.
Expect a good crowd for this game, as Benfica will not be charging any admission to anyone 18 years and under if accompanied by a paying adult.

With the upcoming clash against Sporting for the Portuguese Cup this coming Wednesday, Benfica will need a good result to build momentum ahead of that game. The team seems united and close knit, positive results could only do wonders for this team.


In the first round it was like this


Zerozero.pt Game board

How I saw it - with highlights