Game in a Sentence
Benfica lively, create space, can’t finish, Barcelona win with two goals created by Mr. Messi and scored by others in a fairly mundane game at the Estadio da Luz.
Observations
- Benfica started in an ostensible 4-1-4-1, with Lima up top attempting to use his Brazilian magic against Mascherano and Puyol, and Matic in front of what was a fairly flat back four, understandably.
- Barcelona went with Pedro on the right, Messi and Sanchez, with Xavi, Biscuits and Fabregas in the middle. Mascherano did his CB thing, in which he was mostly very good.
- The play: long-time readers of the Footy Blog will know that Benfica tends to frustrate the pants off me in the Champions League (why I chose this game when I had the pick of the litter I don’t know), and despite their stretching the Barcelona defense at times, that didn’t change much today. Jorge Jesus managed to field a formation that stretched Barcelona in defense (Salvio was particularly active and effective on the right). Their movement was very good at times in the final third. But, crucially, Barca didn’t afford them the space to finish.
- Meanwhile Barca did their thing, but aside from the Sanchez goal courtesy of a straight-forward whipped in cross from Messi in the 7th minute, they didn’t create much of a direct threat to the Benfica goal in the first half aside from a tantalizing cross and a Sanchez half-chance. Benfica for their part played a high defensive line at times but didn’t always win the offside trap.
- It seemed in the second half Jorge Jesus put on Carlos Martins for Bruno Cesar to give the side a bit more strength in the middle, but he was clumsy. So was the goalkeeping from Artur. Fabregas easily shot past him from another Messi assist for a soft second goal in the 55th. GAME OVER. Benfica BORINGLY played deeper and deeper despite losing.
- In typical Benfica fashion though, the side arranged several good chances, from Salvio and Jardel with a nice header in the 61st minute. They did all the right things, except not suck against the best passing side in the world.
- Messi is very good. At everything.
- ZM UPDATE:
Benfica in the game in the first half but now too tired. Barca moves always in inside-left channel
— Michael Cox (@Zonal_Marking) October 2, 2012
- Game sort of faded UNTIL: 1) Iniesta came on and was awesome. Super sub Iniesta. 2) Puyol broke his arm. Film at 11. Gore Porn. NSFW. Let’s hope he’ll recover soon. 3) Busquets got sent off in the 89th minute for…I don’t know. Still looking at replays. The irony in all this is that Benfica were the guys pulling the rough stuff at the end.
- Conclusions? Not much, except losing Puyol is a big blow to Barcelona in La Liga. As for Benfica…I dunno. They lost a couple of heavy-hitters in the summer, but it’s the same players doing the same things as last year. They’re really boring in Europe. Not the greatest CL match day in history, let’s put it that way.
Three Stars
1. Lionel Messi
2. Cesc Fabregas
3. Jordi Alba
Benfica’s 11 looked like pilons in the second half. They played at home and made no attempt to get possesion of the ball, embarassing. Barcelona had a great training session today, dicked around as much as they wanted and passed Benfica to death with the 3 points comfortably sitting in their back pocket. Shame that Puyol got injured his first game back. And of course, Messi was amazing when he had the ball at his feet.
Wow. The fact that you fail to mention Busquets aside from Barca’s starting lineup, him receiving a red card, and leaving him out of your “three stars” goes to show how little you know about Barcelona and the way they play football.
It’s a shame, but you’re still learning =)
Busquets, again was instrumental in the game. I won’t go into details, that’s your job.
Why you are so expectant of Benfica I have absolutely no idea. Especially against Barcelona. Decent players all through out with two to three very good players. The only question that remained to be asked was why Barcelona didn’t thump this team 5-0.
Most likely because of El Clasico. But still, I have a fantasy team to manage.
Mm.
You really have a knack of defending your ability to analyse football matches with logic and rational thought, don’t you? ;)
All I ask is, why Jordi Alba over Biscuits? Por Que?
We’ve done this song and dance before. I rate players based on metrics. I don’t run a fanzine for preteens.
What metrics…?
A whisper in the ear?
Look, I didn’t say you did a bad job. You didn’t. It’s just you that you can be much better <3.
I believe in you.
Just…stop.
You sound like a real winner buddy.
Keep up with the fantastic commenting.
No comment.
<3
Biscuits is right there mentioned in the starting line-up if u can read. and he didn’t do much cause all he does is make simple passes and leaves the real work for Xavi. your description of him says it all he’s just an instrument. put song there u wouldn’t even notice the difference
“Biscuits is right there mentioned in the starting line-up if u can read.”
Hmmm, quite. The question is however, can you read?
“put song there u wouldn’t even notice the difference”
HAHAHAHAHAH. Great footballing mind you must have, I am sure.
no your right song would dive less
Yeah, I gotta agree with Drogba on this one. Busquets is light years ahead of Song. I still do not understand why they signed him to be honest.
that he is but my point is the outcome of then game wouldn’t of changed cause when you have the majoirty of possession it wouldn’t matter, they only need a body there that can make simple passes to the likes of Messi, Xavi, iniesta, Fabregas for them to create something
Okay, let me explain this to you in a way you can perhaps understand.
Your argument is that Barcelona still would’ve won whether or not Busquets or Song played in that defensive mid. position. I think so too. But it would’ve been MUCH more difficult that it was today.
Why you ask?
It can all be explained by the first touch.
Behold, the first touch of Busquets in all its godliness.
Opposition cannot press him because they will not get the ball. Mentally this is depressing. Even if they try to press him, he has already played his pass or beaten you by a simple fake, close to 100% of the time.
Which means…they have two options.
#1. Press Busquets and make him play quicker. The problem with this tactic is that is that you will now instead find the ball more at the feet of Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Alves, Alba, Pedro, etc. in dangerous positions as you try and press him WHILE AT THE SAME TIME try and cope with all the off the ball movement that Barcelona partake in. Busquets has the power to remove your entire midfield out of the equation with one pass, especially when you press him. Also “pressing Busquets” means pressing the entire Barcelona defence, as otherwise he’d just coolly lay it off to either of the back 4 or Valdez even. So if you’re going to press Busquets, you have to press the entire defence. And that is a dangerous game to play if you don’t have the defensive midfield/defence to combat the likes of Messi if you get it wrong.
#2. Lay off of him, and try to cope with his secondary passes to the aforementioned players. This is what Benfica did today. The benefits of this option for Benfica was that, yea Busquets gets lots of the ball, as Xavi might. But if you listened to the commentators you might’ve heard them make a remark about how Messi was BEING SO CLOSELY MARKED (as this was the major threat Jorges agreed upon). So he had a choice. And he chose to limit Messi as much as possible by letting Busquets and Xavi dance (as a subsequent consequence of giving Busquets space). If you give Busquets space, then Xavi gets some too. More so than the other way around, but that’s for another lesson. What this also does for Barcelona is give players like Puyol a great chance to get back into a groove which Tito being the genius he is would’ve bet that Jorge would’ve lined up like this. Reason being, the vulnerable back line of Barcelona get more space…all because of Busquet’s first touch.
Now lets try and enter Song into that equation.
Song’s first touch is decent…but Busquets’ like? Hell no. If Song played instead of Busquets in that position tonight, you can bet Jorge/Benfica would’ve PRESSED THE HELL OUT OF HIM.
Benfica would’ve taken their chances on Song making a mental/technical error and therefore could collect the ball in a good position close to the goal. This would’ve put MUCH more stress on Xavi to stay back and help out Song and their already vulnerable Barcelona defence. WHICH MEANS, Xavi would be involved in the pressing of Song WHICH MEANS he would’ve gotten MUCH LESS SPACE. He also would’ve been slightly isolated from Messi, Pedro, etc. unless the entire front line and attacking set up of Barcelona dropped back to compensate. Benfica surely would’ve scored at least a goal this way. This would’ve allowed them more chances, confidence, and a longer time for Barcelona to grow into the game.
You see what Busquets does for Barcelona?
A godly first touch can solve a world of problems.
Lol I think I know why…they need a physical intimidation factor aside from Puyol and Pique.
Lol I think I know why…they need a physical intimidation factor aside from Puyol and Pique.
NooooOOOOOOooooo. I have been denied access to comment on others =)
Alas my friends, I gather my insight may not be welcome.
-(O_o)-
Have to agree with Drogba on this. Busquets is much better than Song, and if you really think Song could duplicate what he does, you need to watch them both play more. Sure, Song might be quicker and more athletic, but Busquets is incredibly intelligent and offers more to the team overall.
As for this game, Drogba, I don’t think Busquets was necessarily CLEARLY better than Jordi Alba…neither had a poor game or a stand-out game, but I can see your case for Busquets today.
As for the article itself, Richard, I think you’re a bit unfair towards Benfica. First off, to say that you’re normally bored with them leads me to believe you didn’t see either of their Champions League games with Chelsea last season. Both legs were absolutely fantastic, and Benfica even outplayed Chelsea in the last 30 minutes of the 2nd leg, despite being a man down. What about their performance against Man U in the group stage before that, when they drew? They have always been an entertaining team willing to go forward and attack, even against the bigger teams in Europe.
I’ll admit that they didn’t look as good today as they did last year in Champions League, but it is understandable as they have continued to lose their best players. It’s hard to say whether or not Jorge Jesus could have done much differently…even after Barcelona scored, Benfica kept things pretty tight at the back and had some great chances of their own, mostly on a couple hard shots from distance that were saved by Valdes.
Nonetheless, my point is simply that calling them boring for not being able to keep up with the greatest team in the world is unfair. They are in an entirely different financial situation, and, I think if they had been only 1-0 down with 15-20 minutes to go, they would have probably pushed harder for a draw. How many teams out there are confident in scoring 2 goals against Barcelona in the dying minutes of a game?
I 1000000% agree with you.
I decided to go easy on Whittall today. Yikes. I mean Benfica were handing Chelsea’s asses to them for large parts the game at Stanford Bridge last year. Goodness me. I was surprised as to how well Benfica managed to deal with Messi. Their counterattack was impressive as well.
Finally, some rational, logical and intelligent thought.
Thia is all pretty disingenuous considering I mentioned the effectiveness of Benfica’s approach, and criticized the poor finishing.
What’s this dude’s problem with you? As “fantastic” as Benfica plays I have yet to really be “gripped” by one of their encounters.
Let’s be honest, could we call any recent Benfica game a classic? Spurs had more in one season!
And the Score devolves into chaos when it is revealed that Didier Drogba is a pen name for Kristian Jack…
Brilliant. I can see it now.
no no no, It’s Dobby lobbing grenades from the dark side…….
What is “typical Benfica”? For a team who gets a face lift every year losing their top players, we have put up massive fights against some of the biggest squads on the planet. In recent years, United(more than once), Chelsea, Liverpool, and even Barcelona in the Ronaldinho era. You’re either a supporter of one of those clubs who lost to a “typically boring” squad, or you just catch the odd Benfica game here and there and make an expert’s analysis. Either way, this was quite boring itself.