please log in to view this image please log in to view this image please log in to view this image 1st Leg Thur. 13th() March WHL. 8.05pm KO. ITV/HD We must put the weekends disappointment on the backburner for now, as our last hope of tin this season is upon us. Benfica couldn't be a more difficult opponent at this stage, 7pts clear in their League and currently on a roll of straight wins thats quite ridiculous, or put another way, they have only drawn one game...this year! all other games, wins, its goes back further into last year if someone is interested to look....I've seen enough of that stat! Only played twice before that I recall, a friendly in 2010 which saw us 1-0 winners, but most of us will see Benfica as one reason we do not have a European Cup to our name, Semi-Finalists in 1962, with Benfica running out winners 4-3 on agg, a 2-1 win at home not enough to overturn a 3-1 loss away. Benfica went on to win their 2nd consecutive EC, defeating Real Madrid despite Puskas scoring a hatrick. The legendary Eusebio sealing the match with 2 late goals to make it 5-3. not bad having beaten Barcelona the year before! http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleagu...nd=2000471/match=2012657/prematch/background/ Played for both...(Tough one this! mini quiz for any more.) Ricardo Rocha
at this point in time i can't see us getting a result against any half decent team that has a bit of confidence and belief, which Benfica must have. I'm not sure Sherwood will be in a job by the time i'm back from the US (april)
Sherwood needs a win here and it'll be interesting to see how he approaches the tie. I'd expect a number of changes from the Chelsea lineup and a less stifling set of tactics.
The category is 'Played for Both' look him up up anywhere....0 apps. playing for them in training matches does not count on my thread, there is no record of even 1 official youth match, but good try I suppose!
Graham Souness is another ambiguos one, with us as a youth but again with no apps, he managed Benfica for a short spell...him refusing to sign Deco did not go down too well with hindsight!
Haven't looked fully at the Benfica squad but one player I know is Nicolas Gaitan. Hes a class act and I'll expect him to be involved often for Benfica. Also Garay is a decent defender and Luisão offers experience at the back. Other then them three, am not sure if I know the other players. Benfica must be favourites, they appeared in the final last year, are leading their domestic league and likely to be a champions league team next year so they will be prepared and a team unit, rather then us who are unsure of our most effective line up, just can't see how we can win over two legs with the problems we have but at minimum there has to be a reaction, otherwise Sherwood doesn't stand much chance of staying as manager if after his words he fails to get a response agaisnt Benfica and the goons.
Oscar Cardozo is their main striker, I believe, but he doesn't seem to have played that many games this season. Scored a consistently decent number of goals for them for years. Not sure why he's not been bought up by another side, to be honest. They've got a couple of decent Serbian midfielders too, I think, though I've not seen much of them myself.
Well looking at their line up from last year, Cardozo played, as did Garay, Luisão, Arthur, Perez, Moreno and sure there where others that are still there so I don't think they had wholesale changes. But they obviulsy lost Matic to Chelsea.
Forget last year,Cardoso has only been playing EL lately, Lima, Rodrigo and Markovic seem to be getting the nod in their League games, seeing this as a tough EL game, OC is unlikely for me.
after sherwood's comments about the club needing to be realistic regarding a top 4 spot, I can see him really going for the EL now, as it's all we've got left this season as a club, and all he's got for his own pride. I'm expecting an attacking lineup which could well include Ade, Eriksen and Soldado all starting.
If he does that he'll presumably need to drop one of Lennon, Sandro, Paulinho to get his son Bentaleb in
that's the only issue. Bentaleb has got to make way for a more experienced player now. I like the kid, but his inexperience and naivety is beginning to show.
He should not be starting every game. He deserves to be involved in the matchday squad though. We're gonna end up with a bunch of pissed of top quality (supposedly) full internationals because he keeps getting picked
Hard to be wildly optimistic about this one. One small source of hope is that Spurs have tended to bounce back from bad results this season. I would like to see Ade, Soldado and Eiriksen, and if not, than 2/3 at a minimum.
It does look like us being lambs going to the slaughter after some of our passed performances.But as they have Serbs playing for them (I dislike those s.o.b's intensely) I'm hoping Spurs will make me happy by making the **** hit the fan against Benfica,making up for that refereeing screw up in Portugal in 1962, giving them a 3-1 lead.The return at The Lane in 1962.....darn it...we gave away an early goal and try as we could,we couldn't get that 3rd goal....and try we did!!!!!!
Sandwiched between a very disappointing loss and the NLD, not many fans, I think, will be too up for this. But I think that's a mistake. We've played a dozen teams of no particular note, descended into a civil war, possibly completely ****ed up our season and made an incredible comeback to get to this, at last a tasty matchup between two teams with an impressive record of success in Europe. I'm going to do my best to enjoy both matches, if only for how much crap was involved in getting this far.
Pardon my french here but i'm not one of those fans. **** the NLD for this year, its only bragging rights now. As long as its not 4, 5, 6 then who cares? We should go for the Europa full tilt now. 4th is gone, the NLD means little and the Europa is a trophy. Arsenal are likely to win the FA cup, so the Europa would be a good tonic to that as unlikely as it is
