Benfica 1 - porto 1 - The lesser of the 2 evils

Benfica added another point to their tally, with a tie on the first Classico of the season and keeps the distance to porto as it was, 2 points.
It could have been a lot worst, going down a goal 11 minutes into the game, and ending up playing with 10 men after the 58th minute mark, could have had worst consequences.


For his first classico Quique started the following 11:
Quim in goal. Maxi, Luisao, Katsouranis and Leo in the back. Yebda and Martins in the middle. Reyes, DiMaria and Aimar supported Cardozo. Reyes and DiMaria were the two differences from a week ago, something that was predictable.

Benfica started the game strong; As the home team, it's only natural that Benfica came out that way, after all, playing against one of your rivals before your home crowd is motivating enough.
Benfica chose to play in a marking zone system, but to pressure porto high. porto on the other hand, withstood Benfica's initial pressure and tried to create some danger using their wing men. porto's more advanced units tried to explore the spaces conceded by Benfica in between the defense and the midfield, as a result of the high positioning by Benfica's midfield, in virtue of their decision to pressure high.
It was on one of those "explorations", 9 minutes into the game, that Lucho gained Katsouranis' back, the Greek couldn't make his attempt to stop Lucho more obvious to the referee, who did not hesitate to point to the spot, and brandish the first yellow card of the game. A perfect execution put porto ahead on the scoreboard, and Benfica with an uphill battle.
Benfica responded with two dangerous opportunities both of them from set pieces. The first one from a short corner distance, where Martins found Reyes in between the spot and the top of the box, the Spaniard saw his shot blocked by a body. The second one, from the ensuing corner, saw Aimar came close to giving a Cardozo header the direction of the goal, he did not get all of the ball, and Lisandro saved at the goal line. It was Benfica's response to porto's goal, but porto wasn't going to let Benfica gain momentum, and Rodriguez put Quim to the test with two attempts on goal, to which Quim responded with his usual quality. Benfica kept chasing the tying goal, but lacked consistency in their flow of play, and these spikes in between good periods and okay periods, were far from pushing porto into defensive position. Questionable non-call on supposed foul on Dimaria inside the box by Meireles, after seeing the replay several times, i have to say that the call could have depended on the referees' positioning. All week there was talk about Mr Sousa's club affiliations and his belonging to Porto's Regional Association, but in this instance, i would have to give him the benefit of the doubt.
With the help of instant replay, it's a penalty, from where he is standing it might have seemed something else.
The half would come to an end, and despite the intermittent periods of good play, there was hope that Quique could make the necessary adjustments, and the team could come out for the second half more consistent, with the same work rate, but more objective.

The second half started like the first, with Benfica once again strong and with the initiative, but it wouldn't be too long before lady luck would knock on Benfica's door. Aimar had to come off with a muscular injury 2 minutes into the second half, after a a strenuous run to the end line to cross a ball. Nuno Gomes came in for Aimar and added another presence in the area for Benfica. 9 minutes later, another knock on the door, but this time it would be a pleasant knock, as Cardozo brought the score level, after an imcomplete save by Helton. Cardozo found Yebda coming out of the back and the Frenchman took two players on the left side before crossing into the keepers no man's land, to which Helton responded with an incomplete save to the heart of the box, where Cardozo promptly headed the ball towards the goal, Helton still got a hand on it, but the ball would end up crossing the goal line before Bruno Alves cleared it from inside the porto goal.
It was, what it looked like to be, the turning point of the game, Benfica was on the attack and despite suffering the loss of Aimar, the team was playing better and seemed to be headed on the right path to a positive result. 2 minutes later, another knock would come, and just like the first one, it wasn't pleasant. Katsouranis, on yet another mental breakdown, picked up a second yellow(deservedly so), after a slide tackle on Rodriguez, making that the turning point of the game, as well as putting Benfica in yet another uphill battle.
With 10 men, and over 30 minutes to play, Benfica had to make changes. Cardozo was sacrificed to bring in Sidnei to the center of the defense. It was a tough decision for Quique, but the choice fell on the safe, not on the adventurous, and that i understood. Nuno Gomes was left as the lone man up front, and despite Cardozo always being a threat, his lack of mobility would not only hinder Benfica's first line of pressure, but it would also render him useless, as he does not have the range that Nuno Gomes has. Tough decision by Quique, but the right one.
2 minutes later, and because 2 minutes later seem to be the recurring timeline in this post, Leo would have to come out, from what it looked like a groin injury. Amorim came into the right side of the defense while, Maxi moved to the left. For the remainder of the game, Benfica didn't really have arguments to turn the score around, playing with 10 men and with a big part of those 10 men on "E", Benfica did what they could to hold on to the result, as porto failed to take advantage of a Benfica that literally limped to the final whistle.

Individually:

Quim - 8
Maxi - 7
Luisao - 7
Katsouranis - 5
Leo - 7
Yebda - 8
Martins - 7
Reyes - 6
DiMaria - 6
Aimar - 7
Cardozo - 7

Nuno Gomes - 7
Sidnei - 7
Amorim - 6

This result needs to be looked at as positive, despite the 2 points lost.
Taking into consideration everything that happened to Benfica during the game, both the players(minus 1)and the staff have to be happy with the result.
Serious concerns have to fall on the physical condition of the team, who finished the game with a handful of players in clear debilitating difficulties.
I understand that Ayesteran is one of the best, and that it'll take a bit for the players muscles and organism to adapt to the new workout regiments.
I also understand that most of the players that were struggling at the end was because of cramping which is brought on by extreme physical exertion.
I think that, the fact that it was a high intensity game and it was early in the season is no excuse, as the porto men did not seem to be having the same problems.
Something that needs to carefully be looked at in my opinion.

Let's hope that is was just a bad day on Katsouranis' part and nothing else. To compromise the team's success for your own benefit, would be terribly unprofessional on his part, let's hope it was just a bad night for the Greek.

It'll be over 2 weeks next time Benfica enters a pitch, plenty of time to continue to work and continue to evolve this team. There is great potential, but this potential needs to be reached sooner than later. With the UEFA Cup entry deciding games coming up, and another derby, this time against Sporting, Benfica needs to be pretty close to what the team's potential is, or they risk failing to attain the objectives that were set in the beginning of the season.
#Photo Credit - Miguel Riopa AFP/Getty