Sport Lisboa Benfica

It has been known for sometime that Benfica’s coach Jorge Jesus has been looking for a new striker for the club. This is probably due to the fact that Keirrison is not playing according to expectations. After all, Barcelona had paid 15 million Euros for him, and Benfica 2 million Euros to Barcelona to guarantee a 2 year loan. However Keirrison only scored 2 goals in friendly matches this season, with no goals or anything positive in serious matches.

According to Record.pt, Sport Lisboa Benfica is after Atletico Mineiro’s best scorer (scored 19 goals), the 24 year old Brazillian International Diego Tardelli. Diego was transferred two season ago to Atletico Mineiro after his passage in Europe in PSV and Betis, which unfortunately were both unsuccessful. But this year he’s been playing superbly at the Atletico Mineiro, and was even called for the Brazilian National squad by Dunga.

His target price is set for 10 million Euros.

Benfica is already in Belarus for the wednesday match against BATE Borisov for the Europa League.

Benfica only needs 1 point to guarantee the passage for the next stage.

With Luisão still recovering from his appendicitis surgery and Sidnei injury in his left thigh (against Sporting), Jorge Jesus has called the junior Roderick Miranda for the match.

List of players called for the match:

Goal-keepers: Quim, Moreira e Júlio César; 

Defenders: Maxi Pereira, Roderick Miranda, Miguel Vítor, David Luiz, Shaffer e César Peixoto;

Midfielders: Javi Garcia, Ramires, Ruben Amorim, Pablo Aimar, Di María, Fábio Coentrão e Felipe Menezes; 

Strikers: Saviola, Cardozo, Nuno Gomes, Weldon e Keirrison

The match will be on wednesday at 6pm.

Recently there has been various interests from clubs to purchase Angel Di Maria. Even though the set price for him is 40 million Euros, Manchester City seems very keen on his acquisition due to the probable departure of their Brazilian star Robinho to FC Barcelona.

Since then, some rumors have appeared stating Benfica was ready to purchase back Simão Sabrosa, the 30 year old Portuguese international, to cover the probable exit of Angel Di Maria, however Benfica have publicly denied the interest.

Nevertheless, this time the rumors seem to be true, as they came out of Manchester United’s manager’s, Alex Ferguson. It is know that Nani has not been totally satisfied, as he hasn’t had many chances in the current season. Moreover he was really expecting to get his place in the starting eleven with the departure of Cristiano Ronaldo.

But Ferguson said: “Some big clubs have been mentioned for Nani, like Milan and Benfica, but there has been no contact made with us – and we wouldn’t entertain selling him anyway.
“He is only 23. If someone came in for Nani in January we would tell him that he is going absolutely nowhere.”
However he doesn’t seem to be keen on selling him. Instead he told Nani to stop moaning and fight for his place in the starting eleven.
Nani has made 85 appearances and scored 12 goals for United since Ferguson brought him to the club. He was bought for £17million.

This Saturday, Sporting and Benfica played once again for the Portuguese League.
The game was really disputed and once must argue that the draw was just.

The highlights of the match were on the 13th minute, Cardozo received the ball, passed Polga, and shot wide. The the shot from Miguel Veloso, which was brilliantly saved by Quim on the 57th minute and the opportunity that Ramires had on the 83rd minute with an open goal, after a brilliant pass by Di Maria.

The match also brought injuries to 2 Benfica players, Sidnei which suffered a leg injury and will miss the next match and Javi Garcia, which “opened” his head after a head clasher with an adversary, but continued playing with bandages on his head for the rest of the match. At the end he was treated in the hospital, receiving 12 stitches.

Benfica’s coach Jorge Jesus commented on the condition of the grass in the field which he said it doesn’t favour creative football, hence his substitution of Pablo Aimar for Ruben Amorim in the second half. He said the grass is too soft, hence it becomes very tiring for the players. About the 0-0 draw, he said it was an OK result for Benfica as they were playing away, and that Sporting was practically out of the race for the title with 11 points behind Sport Lisboa Benfica.

Below are the highlights of the match:

This weekend will be another classic derby of the Lisbon teams.

Benfica just came from a 1-0 defeat against Vitória de Guimarães, and Sporting won 4-1 against Pescadores for the Portugal Cup. It was Carvalha’s first game, as Paulo Bento resigned a couple of weeks before.

In José Mourinho’s words “Jesus has the upper hand and Carvalhal doesn’t do miracles”.

However, the humble Benfica’s number 10, Pablo Aimar said “There are no favorites”.

Javier Saviola might not take part in the game as he’s still injured in his right leg. Benfica’s medical team has said there’s a possibility that he won’t be able to play the match. Nuno Gomes seems to be the prime candidate to take Saviola’s place in the starting eleven.

Past results of Sporting – Benfica

Benfica suffered this season’s second defeat, this time at home (the first defeat at home) to Vitória de Guimarães for 1-0.

With Luisão still recovering from his appendicitis surgery and Oscar Cardozo still suspended, Benfica played with: Moreira, Ruben Amorim, Sidnei, David Luiz, Fábio Coentrão, Javi Garcia, Ramires, Di Maria, Aimar, Saviola and Keirrison.

The coach Jorge Jesus decided to give the young Brazillian Keirrison (on loan from Barcelona) another chance, as he scored a superb goal last week in a training match.

With Luisão and Cardozo missing, for sure Benfica felt the difference when it came to aerial attack.

Despite Benfica having made countless attacks throughout the whole game, they could not score. Guimarães goalkeeper Nilson was definitely the star of the match, saving on countless occasions.

On the 25th minute, it was Gustavo Lazzaretti who scored with a header after a corner kick. Moreira’s defense was arguable, most say he could have done much better.

It’s worth noticing that Daviz Luiz played as captain for this game, being the youngest captain ever, at 22 years of age.

Highlights of the match:

Jorge Jesus implemented the classic 4-4-2 Diamond Formation since he arrived to Sport Lisboa Benfica in 2009.

This classic formation is known for disregarding the use of wingers which are really popular nowadays. As such, it relies heavily on the lack of width via the full backs. In the case of Benfica the position of left back has been fulfilled with different players such as the Argentinian Shaffer, the Portuguese Cesar Peixoto and the adapted central defender Brazillian David Luiz. On the right side it has been occupied by the Uruguayan Maxi Pereira and the Portuguese Ruben Amorim. As it can be seen the full backs have been a position with several players fulfilling the position in the starting eleven. This is normal as this position in this formation requires constant forward movements in the attack of the team.

For central defenders, David Luiz and Luisão have been taking care of those positions.

The crucial midfield is composed of 1 defensive midfielder, Javi Garcia, a left midfielder Angel Di Maria, a right midfielder Ramires and an offensive midfielder playing the traditional number 10 position, Pablo Aimar. As such it allows the offensive midfield with a lot of freedom to compose its creative attack.

The attacking is composed of two strikers, Oscar Cardozo and Javier Saviola.

Jesus has implemented this formation very successfully, as the team has been playing an amazing attacking style of football, producing an average of 3.1 goals per game.

Since there’s the World Cup Qualifiers Playoff’s this weekend (Portugal vs Bosnia), the national league is halted. As such the Pauleta Cup took place, with Benfica playing Santa Clara.

This is a really good opportunity for the coach to give opportunities to less used players and to also promote players from the junior team.

The starting team was: Moreira; Luís Filipe, Roderick (junior team), Sidnei e Shaffer; Danilo (junior team), Urreta, Felipe Menezes e Nuno Gomes; Weldon e Keirrison.

Benfica scored first by Keirrison (on loan from Barcelona) on the 35th minute, but Santa Clara drew on the 53rd minute by Leandro Tatu. This is actually the Brazillian striker’s first goal since he arrived to Benfica.

The game went onto Penalty shoot outs, where Benfica won for 5-3.

Below are the highlights of the game:

Javier Saviola, born on 11th of December 1981, natural of Buenos Aires, Argentina is currently one of Benfica’s strikers, signed on 2009 from Real Madrid for 5 million Euros.
Javier started his career in River Plate, making his debut at a young 16 years of age. He played there for 3 years during 1998-2001, playing 86 matches scoring 44 goals. He helped his club to win the 1999 Apertura and 2000 Clausura Championships and was awarded South American Footballer of the Year in 1999, at only 17 years of age.

A young promising star was born. Known for his speed and finishing abilities, in 2001 FC Barcelona paid a sum of 15 million Pounds for the 19 year old Saviola. He played in Barcelona for 3 years, during he scored 17, 11 and 14 goals respectively.

The following year he was sent on loan to Monaco where he played for 1 season, 29 matches coring 8 goals. During this year he disputed the Champions League final with FC Porto, for which they lost for 3-0.

Next season he went to Sevilla on loan again, playing for 30 matches, scoring only 9 goals. He won his first first European title, when the club won the 2006 UEFA Cup.

In 2006 he returned to Barcelona, playing 18 league games, scoring 5 goals.

In 2007, his contract expired and Real Madrid signed him for free. He remained in the club for 2 years, but however he never fitted in the team too well, having played only 16 matches and scoring 4 goals during these 2 years.

He’s been pretty unlucky for the fact that he hasn’t been able to show his true talent. Nevertheless his talent can’t be argued, as he has demonstrated that everywhere he goes, the clubs he represented did fairly well.

In June 2009, Benfica signed Javier Saviola for 5 million Euros for a contract valid for 3 years. Having long-time friend and colleague Pablo Aimar also there was key to convince Javier that Benfica was the club he needed to relaunch his career.

Currently he has played 8 games and scored 4 goals so far, making an average of goals per game that he hasn’t been able to achieve since he left his first club River Plate.

Below is a compilation video of the best goals from Saviola:

Unfortunately Sport Lisboa Benfica have been on a dry spell for quiet some years now. Nevertheless this year looks very promising. There was a heavy investment to purchase new players on a total of 25.4 million Euros. The main acquisitions were Brazil International Ramires for 7.5 million, Spanish International Javi García for 7 million and Argentina International Javier Saviola for 5 million.

Moreover with Quique Flores departing, Benfica signed Sporting Braga’s coach Jorge Jesus, paying 700,000 Euros for a release clause.

Jesus implemented a 4-4-2 Diamond Formation, with César Peixoto, Luisão, David Luiz and Maxi Perreira in the back, Javi Garcia as defensive midfielder, Di Maria on the left, Ramries on the right, Plabo Aimar as 10 and Oscar Cardozo and Saviola in the attack.
Currently Benfica is tied first with Braga with 25 points, however they have scored 31 goals (3.1 goals per game) compared to Braga’s 15. Curiously there only defeat was against Braga on Halloween day for 2-0.

In Europa League, Benfica is heading the group with 9 points, followed by Everton with 6. Benfica won last 2 games against Everton, with 5-0 (home) and (2-0) away. Their only defeat was against AEK Athens, which is in last place with 4 points.