Portugal's birth city has been kind to Benfica; in the past 4 times Benfica's made the trip up to the Afonso Henriques, Benfica has not tasted defeat. This year the two teams have already faced each other in a match that gave Benfica the second consecutive City of Guimaraes tournament trophy. Last year Guimaraes finished 8th, missing out on any European competition berths, but they were always a team to be reckoned with.
The new year brought a new coach and 11 acquisitions for Guimaraes, one of them 20 year old Brazilian Leandro, who is under contract with Benfica, but will stay at Guimaraes this year to gain experience.
Benfica and Guimareas come into this game looking for their first win of the season, as both teams tied in the first round of the league.
For this game JJ has called on the following players:
Keepers: Quim, Moreira and Júlio César
Defenders: Luís Filipe, Luisão, David Luiz, Sidnei, Miguel Vítor, Shaffer and César Peixoto.
Midfielders: Ruben Amorim, Javi García, Ramires, Yebda, Aimar and Di María.
Forwards: Keirrison, Nuno Gomes, Cardozo, Fábio Coentrão and Saviola.
21 players in all, which will mean 3 players will watch the match from the stands. One of the chosen should be a goal keeper.
The biggest absence is Weldon, who was injured in friday's training session. Martins who picked up an injury in Benfica's first game of the season is also unavailable.
The starting 11 should not be too far from what we saw mid week against Poltava, although there are some doubts. With Ramires being at 100%, you have to wonder if JJ will stick with Coentrao, or will he opt for the Brazilian. The other doubt lies in the left back position, does JJ have enough confidence in Shaffer to ,give him more reps? Or will JJ go with David Luiz on the left and bring back Sidnei to the middle?
In my opinion, it's important to give Shaffer more playing time, little by little the Argentinean has been showing improvements to his game, he not only adds depth to Benfica's game, he also provides the left wing a good crossing leg.
Benfica will try to give continuation to the success they found mid-week, and will look to prove that the first round tie, was indeed a lack of luck. They will once again look to find solutions to penetrate another team who will try to populate the final third in order to close down Benfica's passing game.
An important game for Benfica as the team needs to get on the winning track, it's not going to be an easy game but in the end Benfica should come out with the three points.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Guimaraes - Benfica Preview
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3 comments:
what an awful match by Benfica. Keirrison was nowhere to be seen, very very poor for a guy worth 15M€. He did NOTHING in 45 minutes.
It was a bad game for the team overall. He seemed too static, but the blame can't all go him, as Benfica had a lot of difficulties getting the ball to the feet of their forwards.
You are right, Benfica didn't play well and Saviola wasn't better than Keirrison in the first half. Benfica's midfield is very poor and it was like the team was trying to use the left wing all the team. Di Maria and that argentinian defender are not bad but they couldn't even make a good cross.
That said, Guimaraes was playing pure Catenaccio in the second half, even more after the handball.
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