Few Toughts on the Hertha Game

I'll start by saying that i did not get a chance to watch the game, as weekday games usually coincide with professional obligations. I followed the game through the radio, but being at work i can never really focus 100% on the radio. Not a bad result for Benfica, going into Germany rarely yields good results and thursday's game was no different, but you're kind of left with the feeling that Benfica could have come away with the three points.

Quique's starting 11 suffered a last minute change when Yebda suffered an injury during the warm up. Binya filled in the for the Frenchman, and was accompanied by the following:
Quim in goal; Maxi, Luisao, Sidnei and Jorge Ribeiro in the back. Katsouranis joined Binya in the middle while Reyes and DiMaria took the flanks. Up front it was Nuno Gomes supporting Cardozo.
Quite an ambitious midfield line for Quique who got away from the one more contained midfielder on the right to give way to a pure winger in DiMaria. I'm not sure that Quique didn't think of changing the right side of the midfield after finding out that Yebda wouldn't be able to go. If he did, he decided to stick to his initial game plan, and once again showed how much trust he has on the team. Up front, he opted to use the players with more competitive rhythm while keeping the returning Suazo on the bench.
From what i heard on the radio, and later read about the game, Benfica had a decent first 15 minutes, but gradually went down and finished the half defending themselves.
Quique left Cardozo in the locker room at half time and brought in Suazo, hoping to add on a little bit more mobility to the front line. Benfica was once ahain the dominating team in the second half, even reaching the goal at the 51st minute mark by DiMaria but the same story of the first half repeated itself and Benfica went downhill from there. Quique brought on Martins for Katsouranis at the 66th minute mark hoping to give the midfield someone who could dictate the pace of the game. Hertha was clearly more attack balanced and Quique opted to bring on Urreta at the 72nd minute for Reyes to give Benfica the chance to counter quick.
The several threats of the Germans eventually materialized as they got the equalizer in the 74th minute.

Not a bad result if you ask me, it would have been a lot worst to have started the group stage with a loss, instead Benfica keeps themselves in the middle of the pack and gets a hard away game out of the way. Benfica will now host Galastaray, who leads the group after beating Greek side, Olympiakos.