Guimaraes 1 - Benfica 2 - Attacking and Defending the Castle

Benfica got the precious 3 points with a suffered away win at Guimaraes. It was one of those games that could very well mark the season, although it's still too early and premature to start thinking of games as being decisive at this stage of the season, this game will be remembered, not only for the the win in a traditionally difficult field, but also on how the team was required to perform in two distinct halves.


Here's the 11 Quique chose for this game:
Quim in goal. Maxi, Luisao, Sidnei and Jorge Ribeiro continue untouchable. In the midfield Katsouranis and Yebda paired up after an off week last week. The flanks were occupied by Reyes and Amorim, left and right respectively. Up front, Aimar was the big surprise when he appeared behind Suazo. What was thought to be a 3 men race for two positions up front, really became a one man race, as the Argentinean got Quique's full trust in his health.

On to the game,

Benfica started very well and soon was giving signals of their intentions to come away with the three points. Reyes gave the first signal when he missed the Guimaraes goal by a couple yards. A few minutes later Aimar was fouled by the touchline inside the box, the referee didn't feel there was enough contact to make the call.
Aimar was the surprise in the line up, and who would have thought that he was in the ideal condition to start? The Argentinean brings a different dynamic to the front line, as he is a player who reads and executes fast, . It was from one of those reads that Aimar found Suazo on a diagonal into the opposition's half, a perfectly executed rabona, left the Honduran International against two defenders, his speed and sheer power took care of the rest a goal worthy of its historic mark, Benfica's 5,000th. 15 minutes in and Benfica was giving the best conclusion to their dominance. 3 minutes later, Reyes found Sidnei in the box and the 19 year old scored his second goal of the season. The rest of the half continued to belong to Benfica but Guimaraes would get one back in the 41st minute. Also before the half was over, Reyes managed to pick up 2 yellow cards, 3 minutes apart from each other and left Benfica with 10 men who went to the locker room forced to abandon whatever game plan they had brought to Guimaraes. A rookie's move by Reyes on the play, he has played at the highest level, his actions are somewhat mesmerizing for a player who is not exactly inexperienced.

The second half, as expected, was a half in which Benfica needed to be smart and control the game as much as possible. Aimar dropped to the left to fill in the void left by Reyes, and Suazo remained up front. His first half solo runs kept the Guimaraes defenders in check, so he was able to hold them at bay. Benfica played compact and was able to defend with everyone but Suazo behind the ball. Guimaraes on the other hand, found themselves consistently being stopped by Benfica's defensive, who closed down spaces and passing lanes, making it difficult for Guimaraes to penetrate Benfica's final third.
That was the Benfica of the second half, playing in a compact unit and hoping to go on the counter. Quique switched Martins for Aimar at the 69th minute, refreshing the midfield, and hoping that Martins could bring more possession to Benfica's midfield and an outlet for the defense-attack transition. At the 77th minute Cardozo came on for Suazo, a substitution i didn't understand, as Cardozo doesn't present much of a moving target, and is not really known to be someone who has the legs to chase. Nuno Gomes seemed more like the logical choice, but Quique had his reasons.
Quique burned his last substitution at the 85th minute mark, when he brought on Binya for Amorim, to give Benfica's midfield more fight. Benfica defended themselves the best they could to the end of the game, and although i felt they could have done a little better in slowing down the game in the second half, it's notable the spirit of sacrifice by the players who played hard until the final whistle to come out with the 3 points.

Individually:
Quim - 7
Maxi - 6
Luisao - 7
Sidnei - 8
Ribeiro - 7
Yebda - 8
Katsouranis - 7
Reyes - 6
Amorim - 7
Aimar- 8
Suazo -8

Martins - 6
Cardozo - 6
Binya - 6

I can't finish this game review without leaving a word of criticism to the man in the middle. A terrible performance by Mr Xistra, who is a very well known name by Benfiquistas, and all for the wrong reason's. If you saw the game, you can see clearly the tendencies of his whistle, a clear penalty not called, several fouls against Benfica players in dangerous zones, not to mention the barbaric high boot to the face on Suazo, which wasn't even called a foul. The Benfica nation awaits the league's judgement on a foul that could have very well have put the players well being in jeopardy.
click on the image to enlarge

An important victory for the team, but there's still a long road ahead. It's nice to see Benfica take advantage of opportunities to put some distance between themselves and their most direct rivals.
No time to rest as another important fixture is right around the corner this Thursday at Estadio da Luz against Galatsaray for the UEFA Cup, let's hope the team can build on the momentum and remain healthy. There is a considerable amount of talent on this squad, who, with the guidance of Quique, can achieve important things. Let's not forget that the team continues to grow and there's still a lot of work to be done. It's unrealistic to expect the team to "clean up" at this point, what i expect are good solid performances that show the team's progress. We can look again where we stand before going into the winter break and see how much we have progressed.


Highlights


Suazo's goal

Photo - AP