Braga 1 - Benfica 3 - A Reason to Smile

On the last away game of the season, Benfica secured 3rd place and sent away some of the vultures that circled above hoping that the defeated would allow themselves to be eaten.
In a game where the team showed a tremendous sense of opportunity and discipline, as well as character, it was the capitalizing of early opportunities that proved to turn the game into a much easier game than amticipated.
But it wasn't all the lucky(?) breaks that made the game, solid performances by Cardozo, Moreira, Miguel Vitor, Amorim, DiMaria, and Urreta gained back some of the respect the team had been losing throughout the year, and help set the presumptuous wanna bees back in their rightful places.

Funny how things work, the same players that were at the center of this game's success were players that were second line players at one point or another in the season.
I lost track to how many times i read and wrote that Amorim should be playing in the middle not on the right, that Cardozo needed more regular playing time regardless how good Suazo is.
On a quick look at the top 3 goal scorers of the Liga Sagres - Nene has played 27 games, 2406 minutes and has scored 19 goals. Liedson, 25, 2096 and 17. Cardozo 25, 1803 and 16. Make your own conclusions.
Urreta who had showed good promise earlier in the season, slipped to the background, and practically disappeared. Had it not been for his performances in the South American U-20 World Cup Qualifying tournament, he would still be in the background. Even so, his performances on an international level, still didn't open the door to the main team and the opportunities Balboa received dwarf the ones the young Uruguayan got.
Speaking of slipping into the background, has anyone seen Fellipe Bastos? What happened to Bastos? A player that Benfica opted to keep with the senior team rather then to give him playing time in Brazil, through a time he couldn't play in Portugal. Did the talent seen earlier vanish, or is the young Brazilian still not ready to compete for a starting job?

Sorry for getting sidetracked, back to the game...

The game itself was very straight forward, Benfica came out pressuring high and forcing the Braga men to make mistakes, it was on one of those mistakes that Katsouranis played a ball behind the defense to find a well timed run by Cardozo, who beat a rushing Eduardo. Eduardo would also be involved in Benfica's second goal, as he had one of his clearances intercepted by DiMaria, who found a way around him, to score.
13 minutes in and all Benfica needed to do was to manage the lead, not easy taking into consideration how many leads that team has blown this season. Moreira kept the the score the same until the half, with 3 good saves.
Going into the locker room you got the feeling the game was far from over, but an early second half goal by Benfica put an end to any plans for a comeback by the home team. Another stolen ball, turned into a breakaway that Urreta finished in the best way, this after DiMaria found him cutting into the box.
Off course the game wasn't without incidents as Yebda came into the game only to pick up his second yellow in 11 minutes, in a phase of the game where the referee showed once again the rotten side of Portuguese refereeing. Yebda wasn't the only one sent out earlier, Quique also received marching orders from the referee, after he told the 4th referee that the calls being missed were a total embarrassment by the refereeing. Invisible fouls, tackles from behind, shirt pulls, were all called in favor of the home team. Nothing can be said about the penalty that Braga got right before the final whistle, but some very dubious calls against Benfica.

Going into the final week of the season, Quique's future with the team is still being put in doubt by the media. If you follow me here, you know that I support his continuity, as bringing in another coach is the same as returning to step "0". I know that Quique might have not reached the objectives Rui Costa had set for the season, but at this point he is quite a ways from "0". One thing is for sure, he will most likely not be on the bench for the team's final game of the season, coincidentally a home game.