Benfica 1-0 Sporting: 10-man Benfica hang on
The starting line-ups
A Javi Garcia header from a Pablo Aimar corner gave Benfica the victory.
Jorge Jesus went for his ‘big game’ 4-2-3-1 shape, which meant no Javier Saviola. Luisao was out injured so Jardel played at the back, but otherwise it was Benfica’s first choice XI.
Domingos Pacienca went for a 4-3-3, or a 4-1-2-3 to be more specific, with Daniel Carrico sitting deep, in place of the injured Fabian Rinaudo. Anderson Polga and Oguchi Onyewu were at the back.
Benfica played the better football in the first half but struggled to make the breakthrough, relying on a set-piece. Sporting had plenty of chances and were clearly on top for the final half hour, after Oscar Cardozo’s red card.
Midfield positioning
The interesting feature of this game was the battle to get midfielders into space to receive the ball. There was an obvious 3 v 3 battle in the centre of midfield – Carriço and Aimar were together, Javi Garcia and Elias watched each other, whilst Axel Witsel and Stijn Schaars had a Low Countries battle in between. The sides played different formations, but were well-matched in this zone.
The key was who could get their other creative players into the game, and Benfica’s had much more joy. Nico Gaitan and Bruno Cesar (who switched sides throughout the first half) don’t play as wingers even when Benfica play 4-2-3-1 – they play much deeper, more centrally and not too different to when Benfica play their diamond system. This meant that they frequently picked up the ball in space – Joao Pereira and Emiliano Insua didn’t want to come all the way out from the defence to meet them, and so they could get the ball and run at speed – Gaitan had a particularly good game, and combined well with Aimar when Carriço was forced out of position.
Sporting approach
In contrast, Sporting’s wingers played higher up the pitch and formed a front three, and struggled to get into the game. Diego Capel was very wide and often couldn’t shake off Maxi Pereira, whilst Mati Fernandez was forced back by the storming runs from left-back of Emerson, who was a real attacking threat. Fernandez picked up an injury midway through the first half and was replaced with tricky winger Andre Carillo, who had pace that worried Emerson more and kept him at bay, so the change actually worked out OK for Sporting in that respect.
Whilst Benfica were trying neat interplay through the centre, Sporting’s approach was more direct. They used Ricky van Wolfswinkel as something of a target man – he had a decent headed chance in the opening minutes, then nodded down for a good shot from Schaars.
Second half
The tactical battle remained rather static until midway through the second half, when Cardozo got a second yellow card for dissent. This changed the nature of the game completely, and there were immediate changes. Aimar is clearly not suited to the lone striker role, so was withdrawn with Rodrigo coming on. Benfica were now 4-4-1.
With Aimar removed, Paciencia could take off his marker, Carriço. That’s exactly what he did, but went for a rather cautious replacement in Andre Santos – a slightly more forward-thinking player, but hardly an attacker. He sat deep in midfield, which seemed overly negative. Sporting didn’t really need two centre-backs and Santos, all with Rodrigo as the nearest player to them – Paciencia could have summoned for Valeri Bojinov earlier, but persisted with a 4-3-3 with no obvious link between the midfield and the attack, although Elias did break forward into goalscoring positions.
That lack of a ‘link’ was Sporting’s problem throughout. Their trio contained a defensive-minded stopper and two players ahead that brought energy and combativity, but little guile. Fernandez was supposed to provide that from the wing, of course.
In fairness, Sporting’s strategy was well-suited to playing against ten men. They kept good width on both sides, Santos sprayed the ball out to the flanks a couple of times, and they persisted with the approach of sending crosses in towards van Wolfswinkel. There simply wasn’t enough goal threat, though – the Dutchman hasn’t scored in open play for two months. Bojinov’s introduction (for Insua, with Schaars going to the left) was necessary and the obvious change to make, but he’s not in great form either. Sporting didn’t have the creativity to create clever chances, nor the established marksmen to turn hopeful crosses into goals (rather similar to the problems the national side faces), and Benfica’s deep two banks of four held on.
Conclusion
Like many Lisbon derbies, this was niggly and lacking in technical quality – and the red card had a bigger impact upon the tactical battle than any in-game changes by the coaches. The goal came from a set-piece – had that not gone in, 0-0 wouldn’t have been an unfair reflection of the game.
Benfica remain the better side, however – more passing quality in the centre of the pitch and greater sources of creativity. The wide midfielders getting the ball to feet was a key difference between the sides early on, and later Benfica were well-drilled with two banks of four behind the ball, and the fresh legs of Rodrigo to chase upfront.
Benfica 1-0 Sporting: 10-man Benfica hang on
http://opitacoboleiristico.wordpress.com/2011/11/29/corinthians-quase-campeao-um-brinde-a-alex-e-seu-dinamismo/
This is about another good match in brazilian league. The 4-2-3-1 is used again, almost blocked, but a player named Alex uses his dynamic and gives Corinthians an important victory.
Good article. Can you update us about Witsel? And any reason why Carlos Martins was loaned? I tried reading up on it but could not find a solid reason why one of the best players was loaned to Zaragoza
It was an interesting match. Benfica’s fluency up front was impressive and very entertaining to watch.
Gaitan was particularly impressive. Very good match. His volley strike off a corner for a near goal was simply brilliant. Beautiful strike of the ball. Good save from the keeper kept it out – but it was a remarkable piece of skill nonetheless.
Another talented advanced attacking player from Argentina.
Thanks for another terrific match analysis.
Terrific analysis. Interesting to see you pick up on the positioning of wide players Cesar and Gaitan. What would you have to done to deal with this unorthodox issue?
Also, Luisao is still included on the diagram despite him not playing.
ZM thanks once more, since i don’t really read portuguese sport press, you’re analysis are top notch.
The article about the game is on the mark.
Thanks
Great analysis, ZM!
The midfield battle was indeed the focal point of this game… and it was one of the reasons Benfica were better throughout, even though there were 2 different phases to the game.
In the first half, Sporting entered with a more open minded game and took care of the ball early on. Benfica, having the champions league experience, this year is more conservative in the begining of matches.
And that pattern set for around 25min, when Benfica decided to play a little more open… there was a crucial point in this that didn’t concern Benfica- Carrillo being subed in. That forced Emerson further back, as ZM stated, but it allowed Maxi Pereira (who was playing quite deep for those 25min) to have more freedom to join atttacking moves.
It was noticeable that Capel wasn’t tracking Maxi on those forward runs and that set a series of events throught midfield, that would result in a clear Benfica dominance past those 25min.
- First Maxi bombed forward and Schaars had to come out and confront him.
- That left Witsel with a more breathing room and Elias was pinned back in order to track him.
- With Elias busy further back, Javi Garcia had time to breath and Benfica were no longer under constant pressure in midfield.
- Sporting’s midfield were now spread around thin and that left Aimar 1vs1 with Carriço. After that point, Aimar was clearly man of the match.
With so much overload Benfica were threatning Sporting and had some good chances. The goal however would come from a corner, but one could argue that it was only an inevitability due to the ammount of stress Benfica were forcing.
Capel could have changed all that, he had a lot more time on the ball and did get behind Maxi Pereira a couple of times… but Maxi was always very physical with him and Capel isn’t that creative or direct of a player to take advantage of that kind of situation – he always looks for the cross and runs vertically, instead of trying diagonals torwards goal.
The pattern in the 2nd half started like in the 1st 25min.
Benfica were more reserved, and now had a lead, so that meant taking fewer risks.
Sporting were chasing the result, but weren’t being particularly active in doing so. Both side backs were somewhat conservative.
That all changed afer Cardozo’s dismissal.
Benfica quickly subbed Aimar and were now set in two banks of four and stopped pressuring the man with the ball.
Sporting were again very conservative and kept their structure… they suubed in Andre Santos who can be somewhat of a deep lying playmaker, but all in all, there wasn’t a sudden change in strategy. Elias and Schaars were particularly disappointing in this phase (despite Elias being in a position to miss a few goal scoring chances.
Another disapointment were Insua and João Pereira. With Gaitan and B.Cesar almost playing like 2nd side backs, the 2 Sporting players had tons of room to run into, yet only on few occasions did they join the attack.
That meant that despite having Andre Santos to spray the ball, there was no clear options to pass. Sporting were somewhat patient and enjoyed possession in their defense, but were unable to translate that into creating some fluid plays from the back.
Sporting only threatened on some lost balls and Benfica weren’t all that stressed out during that final +-30min.
At this point Benfica are clearly taking adavantage from the previous CL experience and Jorge Jesus has defiinitely set aside his flairing but quite suicidal diamond shape.
Domingos has done a good job in his first year at Sporting, but it’s noticeable they need some tweaking in order to compete against Porto and Benfica.
Sorry I accidentally loaded the comment twice
Hi kramxel,
I was wondering if you could give me your email address so I could ask you a couple of questions?
James
No disrespect, but ask the questions here.