Benfica 2-3 Porto: pressing, transitions, set-pieces and substitutions
The starting line-ups
A stereotypically brilliant match between these two sides ended with a narrow win for Porto, who now have a crucial lead in the title race.
Benfica coach Jorge Jesus named the side that was largely as expected. In fact, it was exactly the same XI that played in the 2-2 draw in the reverse fixture.
Porto coach Vitor Pereira’s side was very different from that day, however. Marc Janko has since arrived to play upfront, Lucho Gonzalez has returned in the middle, while Djalma played on the left and Maicon was at the back.
This was a very attacking, aggressive game that went through various phases and was highly influenced by substitutions.
Early stages
Possession was pretty much even (51-49) in the first half, and the formation battle was as expected – 4-2-3-1 v 4-3-3. We know what to expect from these battles – the midfield triangles closely aligned, 1 v 1 battles on the flanks, and a spare man at the back. The key in positioning terms is to look for movement and fluidity.
We had this from both sides in the holding positions, though in different ways. Javi Garcia dropped into the back to push the Benfica centre-backs wider, the full-backs moved higher, and make Benfica roughly a 3-3-1-3 with the ball, once the wide players had moved forward and Axel Witsel had become the sole central midfielder. Porto, however, featured rotation in their midfield triangle, meaning Fernando stormed forward a couple of times, with Joao Moutinho becoming the deepest midfielder.
Pressing
More important than formations or movement when in possession was what the sides were doing without the ball. Both pressed heavily in midfield, with Porto doing this more effectively than Benfica, who suffered slightly from Pablo Aimar’s lack of work rate, and confusion about whether he was meant to be pressing one of the centre-backs or Fernando, plus the issue of Fernando’s forward movement.
Porto dominated the early stages because they were more energetic and more combative in midfield, with Gonzalez a key factor. When Benfica shifted briefly to three at the back with the ball, the Porto wide players tracked the Benfica full-backs, but the central midfielders continued to press Garcia and Witsel, meaning they actually ended up in advance of Hulk and Djalma. Porto went ahead through a Hulk thunderbolt – a freak goal, but one that reflected their dominance at that period.
The early second half line-ups, with the key changes highlighted
Fouls and high lines
The pressing from both sides meant three things for the game. First, it was played at a very high tempo. Second, there were lots of tackles, fouls and cards, which would prove crucial later on. Third, it meant both sides played with a high defensive line, which was not a huge problem because both Janko and Oscar Cardozo are both threats with their height and strength rather than raw pace.
However, Benfica did then create a couple of chances by lofting the ball over the top of the defence – Cardozo flicked a shot into the hands of the goalkeeper, then Aimar had a header saved.
Towards the end of the second half the pressing dropped in intensity, but both sides continued to do it. This meant the press was easier to get out of, transitions became more obvious, and Benfica grew into the game. They could get their wide players (and Aimar) involved in the game more easily to carry the ball forward, and again, while Cardozo’s equaliser didn’t arrive because of a particular tactical feature of the game, Benfica had looked strong at that point, and had forced three Porto players to go into the book after fouls.
Second half
This is when set-pieces started to become an obvious feature of the game (naturally, with so many fouls) – and Cardozo, unmarked in the centre of the goal, headed in a free-kick.
Jesus then made a substitution, with Aimar off and Rodrigo on to play slightly higher up the pitch. An Aimar injury may have contributed to Jesus’ decision, but although it left the midfield a little more open, the change made sense – Benfica wanted more energy high up the pitch, and Rodrigo could run a lot faster, and a lot further, than Aimar.
James and Djalma
But the crucial change came from Pereira, who made the extremely bold move of taking off centre-back Rolando, and bringing on wide forward James Rodriguez. This prompted a reshuffle – Maicon came into the centre, and previously anonymous left-winger Djalma moved all the way across to right-back.
Gaitan was moved to left-back
Djalma played brilliantly at right-back, and as Porto pushed forward, that was to become the key battlezone. That said, they were leaving space at the back for Benfica to counter into, and the game suddenly became a contest all about playing on the break. Porto’s goal actually came from a counter-counter-attack – Benfica had broken and left their midfield bare, so Porto went up the other end and James, playing narrower than Djalma, finished a sweeping move brilliantly. Pereira’s move was an inspired decision in that respect, but it could just as easily have been 3-1 as 2-2 at that point.
10 v 11
The substitution got even better, because Djalma continued to motor forward. Porto played predominantly down that side, and this may have contributed to Emerson fouling Hulk and picking up his second booking. He was off, and now Benfica had a real problem in the zone of the pitch they were already looking weak in. Jesus was made to pay for not having Joan Capdevila (hugely out of favour) on the bench, and instead he had to put creative midfielder Nico Gaitan there.
This was clearly not an ideal situation. Benfica sat back with two banks of four and Cardozo upfront, but Porto continued to get the ball out to Hulk. Eventually, the uncomfortable Gaitan dived in and conceded a free-kick in that left-back zone. Sure enough, Porto scored from the set-piece, with Maicon up from the back to head into the net. Porto were then comfortable for the final few minutes with 11 v 10.
Conclusion
Last season Benfica suffered one of their most humiliating defeats to Porto when they lost 5-0 at the Dragão. The problem there was a complete inability to defend in the left-back zone, with David Luiz terrible in particular. Hulk running riot, and all five goals coming from that zone. The same position turned out to be a huge problem tonight, and this may have a significant impact upon their title hopes.
That turned out to be the key factor in a game that featured pressing, counter-attacking and poor defending at dead ball situations. It was a fantastically open game, and Pereira came out on top with his brave substitution.
Hulk’s amazing when givin space
Benfica – I think the result was a fair one.
In defense, the CB’s dealt with Janko comfortably, pushing him away from goal where he was no threat. At fullback, Maxi also dealt well with Djalma, though he was also tracked forward well in return, so didnt have a big impact on the game. On the other side Emerson couldnt deal with Hulk, looking slow and unable to deal with his threat. But with Janko rarely a threat, Garay did a good job moving out to deal with Hulk, meaning Benfica werent completely open down that side in the beginning (Hulks goal was a wonder strike).
In midfield, Garcia tried to drop deep to get space and time on the ball, as well as let the fullbacks get forward. But this didnt work as Lucho pushed forward well and didnt leave him any space, this disrupted his calm passing game and Benfica couldnt slow the game down when they needed to. Witsel on the other hand did a great job pressing Moutinho, not allowing him to dominate the game (like he did in the reverse game), while also getting forward on a couple of occasions. But while they managed to defend well in deep midfield, Aimar was poor at defending and was clearly the wrong choice for this game. He didnt seem to pressing anyone, when clearly he should have pressed Fernando and at least have tracked his runs forward. In this position Benfica lost the midfield battle in the first half.
Further forward, when they could get the ball forward, Nolito looked dangerous running at the Porto defense at times, while Gaitan grew into the game and started to do a passable Silva impression; coming off the wing and becoming the key playmaker. Both wingers were never dealt with by the fullbacks very well, though the same could be said of the wingers, who rarely tracked back when the fullbacks got forward. Up front, Cardozo did well to hold up the ball for benfica and did a better job than Janko for Porto. His first goal was a quality strike and showed how the Porto Cb’s stood off him too much in the first half, while his second showed his threat in the air which he was rarely able to show.
In the second half, Benfica changed things around by taking off Aimar (good move) and bringing on Rodrigo, who brought pace and directness to Benefica’s play. It was probably the right move conceding the midfield battle and playing a more direct game, but Porto’s changes added more penetration to their game and lead to Benfica losing. Djalma (now at LB) exposed Nolito’s poor defensive work and overloaded Emerson, which lead to him being sent off and losing any Hope for Benfica. Maxi also didnt track James very well (as shown in his goal) and couldnt take advantage by getting forward, as Benfica weren’t able to keep the ball for very long.
Overall, Benfica were able to keep Porto at bay defensively in open play (with it taking a wondergoal to open the scoring, but were losing the midfield battle with Aimar non-existent. He was taken off and Benfica went more direct with Rodrigo, which made sense. But Nolito didnt track back against Djalma and Maxi didnt defend well against James, both Porto subs or tactical switches, showing who made the better changes in the game.
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I think the analysis is spot on. It was a very even match. Porto started better because they pressed more in midfield. When the pressing decreased Benfica got into the game and then came the introduction of James which changed the match in Porto’s favour, Benfica couldnt take advantage of the space created by Djalma’s runs, instead Djalma helped to overload Emerson and then 11 vs 10 Porto was dominant and Benfica couldnt do much. Pereira should be praised for his brave moves, also Kleber for Moutinho late on showed a clear intention to get the away win. Fernando was key in this match imo, not only because of his excellent pressing and tackling but also because of his forward movement, basically giving Porto’s midfield a 3 vs 2 advantage, he assisted both Porto goals from open play, recovering the ball and making a great diagonal pass to Hulk and then for the 2nd again taking the ball from Benfica and going on to exhange a 1-2 with James. Although Porto’s win is understandable it’s worth noticing that Benfica were somewhat unlucky with 2 forced substitutions: Aimar and Garay, although as you said Rodrigo for Aimar wasnt that much of a blow, the 3rd goal was also unlucky because it was offside but it came for a tactical reason with Gaitan clearly not up to the task of playing in defense.
What a game. 2 really good sides going at each other hard. Stadium was rocking, and a lot of quality as well as passion and commitment on show. The winner came from a great delivery into the box as well. Superb match – one of the best in europe this season.
Imo the result ended up being more a reflection of individual mistakes and brilliance than a tactical battle. When you look at hulk’s and james’s goals, brilliant though they may be, in both emerson shies away from the challenge, he could have blocked the shots (particularly the one by James). And then he went on to get himself sent off for a very poorly-timed tackle. He lacks the drive and technical quality of alvaro pereira, he can’t rampage forward like maxi pereira, his link-up play is generally poor… he’s bad going forward and he’s bad at defending, he just doesn’t have the quality for a top club and has long been regarded as a weak-point in an otherwise solid defense. It’s only natural porto exploit that, everybody else does…not much about tactic innovation here, porto attacks mostly down the left side anyway.
Enormously entertaining match. Think it will turn out to be one of the true highlight matches played in all of Europe this season in terms of the pure combination of quality and joy.
ZM has written quite a bit about match control this season, particularly in the context of the Premier League.
One of the most interesting aspects of this match for me was how high tempo and energetic it was, but how at the same time that rhythm came largely from both sides attempting to dictate match control. The match was “open” but not in the fashion of being open due to a looseness in play or a due lack of structure or composure to play. The contest was highly organized in terms of defense and technical in possession.
Each side sought to dictate a high tempo match focused on their respective pressing games when out of possession. That high tempo pressing in turn forced the team in possession to have to play with wonderful technique to orchestrate play. There was almost a fitness function of sorts that lifted the overall quality of both sides due to the quality and organization of the high pressure defending and the needed responses on the attacking side.
The similarities in shape and dynamism of play in the middle (especially after Aimar came off) meant that any marginal differences along the flanks were likely going to prove decisive. Porto’s quality on the right flank again proved decisive.
Last season in that 5-0 match there was a clear impact of a difference in shape. That match was an eye opener as Benfica was utterly exposed along the left out of their 4-4-2 block. In that match Jesus started Coentrao at LW and Luiz at LB. Hulk just toyed with Luiz requiring Jesus to change shape and move Luiz back to CB and Coentrao to LB. But even then Benfica couldn’t truly control the Porto attack down that flank.
And once again, Porto’s quality on the right was instrumental. Pereira’s had a trying season but in this match his changes were both brave and decisive. Djalma was excellent at RB and Rodriguez played well on the left when he entered.
Ironically the change Jesus may have needed to make in response was to play a more defensively oriented LW to check Djalma at RB – such as playing a “Coentrao type” at LW (again-last year’s strategy in the 5-0 match). Nolito will work to press high up but overall he’s a limited defensive presence, particularly in the deeper regions of on that flank where the match was decided.
Great contest. Well managed from both sides. But Periera deserves a great deal of credit for his bravery, especially away at Benfica. Very difficult situation to try to generate advantage with so much at stake in such a hostile environment.
But it was ultimately a combination of Pererira’s changes on the flanks and Porto’s talent from wide positions which swung that tightly contested battle for match control in its favor. Outstanding stuff.
completely agree, nothing like the openness of the arsenal vs spurs game for instance. Much more controlled.
Pereira’s substitutions proved inspired, though perhaps his starting XI was less so – playing with Maicon as RB rather than Sapunaru, and Otamendi as Centre-Half rather than Maicon seemed like a bad decision. Why Sapunaru is so out-of-favour with Pereira is a mystery (more so than the Capdevilla situation at Benfica, where at least there’s some sort of rationale given). James again proved decisive, and it seems unlikely that, under normal circumstances, he’ll be kept out of the main eleven.
Benfica are surprisingly dependent on Aimar – not good, seeing as Aimar is getting on in years and was always physically fragile, which is only likely to get worse – but this isn’t wholly surprising. Gaitan is going through a very sedate phase, and unlike the similarly out of form Hulk, he doesn’t seem to have the ability to pull one out of nowhere every once in a while. Rodrigo and Nolito are not midfield creatives, which leaves only Witsel as a quality option that might be able to replace Aimar. But then who’d replace Witsel in the withdrawn midfield duo?
what is the reason for Capdevila being out of favor?
Porto – Deserved win for me.
In defense, they were strong at CB, with the partnership of Rolando and Otamendi strong as ever. Im still surprised no-one has come in for either, both quality CB’s. Though they tended to give Cardozo too much respect sometimes and left him space to help build up play, especially towards the end of the first half. His goal was very lucky, but showed his shooting ability, while his second (though unmarked) was an excellent header. At fullback, neither defended that well against the two benfica wingers, as they moved inside and the fullbacks were uneasy about following them. But it did mean they got space to get forward, though they werent taking advantage of it, which maybe prompted the second half change of the attacking Djalma to RB.
In midfield, Fernando was excellent and probably my man of the match. He personified their pressing, completely taking Aimar out of the game first half. But he also got forward really well, when in the reverse leg that was his problem as he stayed too deep. This added an attacking player as Aimar didnt mark him, and it allowed him to play some incisive passes (like the pass to hulk for the first goal). Moutinho wasnt as dominant in this game as the last, with Witsel pressing him from the start with admirable energy. A good decision by Benfica which meant Porto couldnt dominate possession. Lucho was excellent defensively (maybe surprisingly) as he pressed very high up the pitch to stop Garcia playing the ball out from the back. This stopped Benfica dominating possession and both sides had the ball playing midfielder pressed out of the game. But by playing so close to Garcia, he never seemed to be able to find space himself to create chances and didnt have a great impact offensively.
Up front, Janko was the central striker, but had a poor game. He was pushed high up the pitch where he became useless, while he didnt contribute to build up play either, as Porto rarely played it long to him. Kleber probably would have been the better choice up front for me (his pace would have been a good weapon). This had an effect on Hulk in the first half, as garay could afford to double up on him with Emerson and he wasnt as big a threat as normal in the first half (his goal was a wonder strike). Djalma was comfortably taken care of by Maxi and didnt really feature in the first half. So Porto’s attack was rather Blunted by Benfica, who had a good job defensively in the first half.
In the second half, Porto changed their team around and won the game. First was taking rolando off for James. this resulted in Djalma moving over to RB, where he became a key player in the match. Porto must have recognized Nolito wasnt tracking back, so playing a much more attacking RB was a brilliant move. Djalma overloaded Emerson and contributed to him being sent off and Hulk getting back into the game. The other effect was James coming on in the left wing position, he had a much better game there than Djalma, as he moved inside and contibuted to attacks much more (his movement was excellent). A Benfica change also meant Fernando (who was rarely marked anyway) was even more free, so he could concentrate on defending against Nolito or Gaitan and also get forward with even more freedom.
Later in the half Garay came off injured and Benfica lost that CB who could double up on Hulk (with Vitor much less mobile) which along with Djalma motoring forward, let Hulk dominate the game. He was a constant threat in the second half and should have got another goal. But what he did do was get the LB Emerson sent off, which cut out any hope Benfica had of winning the game. They tried to shut up shop, but Gaitan was poor at LB, and Porto eventually found the winner as they dominated the later stages.
Overall, Porto deserved to win. In the first half, they won the midfield battle, but looked blunt in attack and unable to deal with Cordozo and the Benfica wingers moving inside. Second half they added the talented James to create a new threat in attack, and took advantage of the Benfica wingers moving inside by moving Djalma to RB and getting him forward. This along with Garay coming off for Benfica resulted in Hulk dominating and getting Emerson sent off.
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Can you please explain what was the right way to play that counter just before Portos goal for 2:2?
Dear Mr Cox, brilliant job, as always! Not only am I grateful for the fact that you covered a Portuguese match, but your observation skills never cease to amaze me. However, I would just like to point out a couple of things I don’t necessarily agree with (pardon my immodesty): firstly, in my opinion, Aimar didn’t start the match goalside of Fernando, which was a decisive factor in those first 20 minutes. With Lucho on Javi and Moutinho on Witsel, Fernando was oddly free to pressure up front and pick up any loose balls. Secondly, Maicon went from right-back to left centre-back (not right centre-back), which made all the difference, in my view, because he was much tighter on Cardozo and was able to minimize that threat. My apologies in advance for crashing your backyard.
Any feedback from you would be great, as always.
Witsel or Garcia surely would have been a better choice to move to full back? Bizarre that Gaitán went there.
This analysis was wildly refreshing after listening to about two hours of nonsense analysis and complaints about refereeing after the match, in portuguese TV. No doubt our late winner was offside, but nevertheless very interesting to read an analysis about the actual footballing roots of this result.
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