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Author: Lorric
Date: 13-05-2013, 03:37

I know it's unrelated to coefficients, but this is a response to something on Forum 2, and I'm not on Forum 2:

https://kassiesa.net/uefa//forum2/viewtopic.php?t=2618&postdays=0&postorder=asc&st
art=120

And I quote:

"Well, what a clássico! I don't know if any neutrals here in the forum have watched the game and, if so, I'd like to know their opinions about it."

I wasn't impressed by the game, I expected better. But I still enjoyed it, and it had a grand finish. Some of the typical Portuguese garbage (diving/cheating) that I hate, but considering the magnitude of the fixture, there was less of it than I expected.

Benfica seemed happy to sit in and play not to lose. Porto were expending lots of energy in attack as you'd expect, but seemed to have no plan at all, it was a team of guys who looked like a bunch of players who'd never played together before. Benfica were just soaking it all up with ease, even though I don't think Benfica played very well. They barely got out of their half all game, but tactically with Porto's uninventiveness, the gameplan was sound, when normally I'd have thought it suicide in a match like this. Benfica scored on what looked like their first attack (I didn't see the first few minutes, but it was all Porto up until that point.)

Porto's equaliser was a lucky one, what should have been the keeper saving a cross along the ground which needed dealing with as it would have gone in, ended up knocking the ball into the net.

So the game basically followed a pattern the entire match of Porto attacking ineffectively and Benfica just soaking it up even though Benfica weren't playing well. This I found annoying, I wanted Benfica put to work before the Chelsea match, but they basically spent the entire match chilling in their own half. Porto managed to win the match in injury time, Benfica barely had any time to respond, obviously they tried to attack, but the ref blew up about 2mins later.

I was impressed by the early atmosphere, at one point the fans were whistling with the noise level you'd normally see for a penalty against the home side, just to try and put the Benfica keeper off a goal kick. But the atmosphere kind of petered out as the game went on. Porto were running around, but just not giving the fans anything to really get behind, they weren't creating anything. The match held my attention for most of the first half, but the second I ended up doing other things on the computer between watching the match. I'd keep looking back, and every single time I'd basically see Porto on the ball and doing absolutely nothing dangerous with it.

If Benfica play like they did in this match, Chelsea will steamroll over them.

Author: bugylibicska
Date: 13-05-2013, 06:31
Edited by: bugylibicska
at: 13-05-2013, 06:34

I haven`t seen the game, but seen Benfica a few times in the past year. If you`re a Chelsea fan you`ve nothing to worry about. Have you heard the name Guttman Bela. He was the Hungarian coach of Benfica when they`ve won the European Cup (now CL) twice in the early 60`s beating Barcelona (3:2)first and Real Madrid (5:3)the year after. The legend says he cursed them after leaving in `62.
``The Bela Guttmann curse is almost 50-years-old, but we will never know exactly what the great Hungarian coach said. The classic, most popular version claims he announced that “not in a hundred years from now will Benfica win a European Cup”, when angrily leaving the club in 1962. That, however, is far from certain. The reason for Guttmann’s abrupt departure from Lisbon was all about the Benfica management’s refusal to pay him a bonus for winning the European Cup twice in a row, since there was no such clause in his contract. Thus Guttmann allegedly sniped that Benfica will never win a European Cup until he was paid his due.``
``As for Benfica, the debt was never paid and the cup was never won again. The Eagles reached the final on five occasions since Guttmann’s famous words and lost all of them.``
That Benfica with players like Eusebio, Coluna, Augusto, Simoes and so on would wash the floor with Chelsea, literally. Now, I`m afraid the curse still in effect.

Re: Thunder_PT, I'm your neutral!
Author: bugylibicska Date: 16-05-2013, 01:27 Edited by: bugylibicska at: 16-05-2013, 01:29	``Now, I`m afraid the curse still in effect.`` Indeed.

Author: Lorric
Date: 16-05-2013, 02:00

I saw what you said on Forum 2.

Chelsea deserved to win the match. Chelsea know how to put the ball in the net. They know how to stop opponents putting the ball in the net. It's just that simple.

But with Benfica in particular, there's been the following pattern:

27th March 2012

Benfica have a lot of possession. Benfica can't hit the side of a barn. Chelsea win.

4th April 2012

Benfica have a lot of possession. Benfica can't hit the side of a barn. Chelsea win.

15th May 2013

Benfica have a lot of possession. Benfica can't hit the side of a barn. Chelsea win.

Re: Thunder_PT, I'm your neutral!
Author: bugylibicska Date: 16-05-2013, 02:11	Oh, I`ve seen those games as well. The point is not possession, that`s really meaningless, but Benfica missed all their chances. I agree, a team like them don`t deserve the victory, but Chelsea cannot claim they deserved to win. Of course, it`s only my opinion and I don`t like them, but I made 200 bucks, thanks to Guttmann Bela!

Re: Thunder_PT, I'm your neutral!
Author: Lorric Date: 16-05-2013, 02:17	If Benfica didn't deserve to win, then Chelsea did. They can't both lose.

Author: bugylibicska
Date: 16-05-2013, 05:32

Impeccable logic in a world of black and white. If it`s not black then must be white. Brilliant! Maybe the problem is that I`m an old fart, I tell you a secret, I`ve seen more than these two colors during my life.
I`m just happy that Shakhtar made Chelsea play in the EL and the people of Eastern Europe got a maybe once in a lifetime opportunity to see the great champions of Europe (losing)! So, now that`s the only reason I want Arsenal to take the same route, because even they must be bored to play every year, forever in that ugly CL, where they usually get spanked anyway.
It`s normal when two people at the opposing ends see things differently, just slightly differently. For you Chelsea deserved, for me they`re lucky (again) playing a cursed Benfica, but I acknowledge and don`t contest their triumph. Enjoy! Peace!