The European/World Football Thread III

Yeh, it was quite a surprise to see Lucho leaving. Very sudden. But I'm not complaining! He was one of the better players that Porto had in that midfield. And now that both Benfica and Porto have lost an important midfielder, it kinda makes us even (even though I reckon it will be harder for us to replace Matic, than for Porto to replace Lucho).

At least you've got a shirt with the name of a club legend on it (if we can call him that by now..). I mean, no player is realistically going to stay at Porto for a long time (Portuguese squads are always changing), so buying a shirt with the name of any player is always likely to go out of date within a few years at the very most (unless you got Helton or someone on the back of your shirt). That said, nobody expected Lucho to leave Porto, so it makes sense that you'd buy a shirt with his name.

Taca da Liga-wise, pretty interesting stuff. Benfica played a whole load of Portuguese players and many academy players got their chance as well. We won 1-0 very comfortably.. Gil Vicente's attack was almost non-existant.

Andre Gomes had one of his best games in a long time (and it seems we have sold his monetary right for 15m to that Mendes fellow). Ivan Cavaleiro did pretty well too. I was glad to see Bernardo Silva get some 15 minutes at the end as well.. he replaced Djuricic (who didn't play very well) and added a lot of attacking threat, I really hope Bernardo gets more chances because he is by far the best youth product I've seen come through Benfica.

Joao Cancelo also made his debut and played quite well. I mean, he attacked well enough, don't know much about his defensive qualities because, like I said, Gil Vicente might as well not have turned up.

Porto got lucky to win their match against Maritimo. Pretty dire performance from Porto considering Maritimo had a bunch of B team players playing. It was only near the end that Porto suddenly started the engines and won the match with that penalty. Sporting weren't happy, obviously, but the penalty was probably the right decision..

And yeh, I hate the window just as much as you do. Thankfully no more sales have happened so far. But, that can still change. IIRC we lost David Luiz on the last day of the January window, so anything can still happen.

Ola John has left on loan to Germany... hopefully he plays out there, increases his value and then is sold on.. I've given up on him being useful for Benfica again.

Nothing on Rodrigo or Garay, fortunately. Djuricic's agent said Newcastle were interested. Dunno how real the interest is, but I'd prefer if we kept him, especially if the offer is just 10m like it was reported. We might also find out where Mendes is going to take Andre Gomes tomorrow.

Losing Lucho is a blow because as you put it, he has been one of our better players this season. I’m so glad the Fernando and Mangala deal to City didn’t go through. Imagine if we lost those two along with Lucho in this transfer window.

Tonight was time for Defour to step up but he was unimpressive. Porto as a whole were unimpressive tonight though. Going to Madeira is always difficult but now we’re going to fall even more behind. Maritimo without Heldon didn't trouble them as much as i hoped it would tonight.

As well as Andre Gomes I notice that Benfica have sold Rodrigo’s rights too. Surely both will be sold in the summer now?

Ha, I had forgotten all about Ola John. Can’t believe he’s still only 21, he still has time on his hands to turn it all around for himself. So maybe going to Hamburg will help him out.

Can’t believe Sporting got Heldon and then they sneaked in that Shikabala guy right at the end. I don’t much about Shikalbala but I’ve watched enough of Maritimo to know they would have struggled even more without Heldon (and Derley) this season. Both have been great for them and although Sporting don’t really need Heldon I think he’s a great addition to strengthen that squad.

And by the time i finish writing this I watched Lima score and now Gil have just scored a lovely goal, think Oblak could have done better with that though.

Libya ended up winning the CHAN 2014. All their knockout games went to penalties. Some immense fitness level and supreme mental strength which isn't surprising given what that country's going through.

Lol, I was actually surprised to see news about Fernando and Mangala first thing in the morning on Friday.. even the BBC site had an article about it (and you just know that, when the BBC is reporting it, there must be something in it), but then it didn't happen which was a bit disappointing :P

And yeh, we've sold Rodrigo's rights as well. Can't see either of them staying past the summer now..

I don't know much about either of those two Sporting signings. I doubt they'll add anything extra that they couldn't have got from the academy. Who knows though....


Anyway. Today's matches. Porto were definitely pooooooor. I watched the second half and it was just not good at all. Not much to say about it.. they miss a creative force in midfield, Quintero (who has come back out of nowhere, had almost forgotten about him) might be that, but maybe a bit too early for him. Quaresma is already the best threat Porto have.

As for Benfica. Unbelieveable. Porto lose and we instantly fail to capitalise on it. It's like no one wants to win the league this season. Now Sporting can go top (although on equal points with Benfica) if they win.... and then there's a derby next weekend, which Sporting will have more time to get ready for because we have a cup match in between >_<

We didn't play too well, but the pitch really didn't help at all. It was almost unplayable. Also didn't help that Siqueira got sent off and we had to play a lot of the second half with 10.

I agree that Oblak should have saved that shot. It went almost straight at him and through his hand. And then, if a super save from Gil Vicente's GK wasn't enough (from that Cardozo shot at point-blank range), he went on to save the penalty at the end as well.

To be honest, I already had a bad feeling when I saw Cardozo step up to take it because he always misses important penalties. He'll score them when we're already leading 1-0 or something, but 99% he'll miss the ones that will make a difference.

I don't know why Cardozo came on anyway. We took the lead with 10 men and JJ brings on a striker instead of Amorim

Anyway. Next week should be interesting. Porto can still make up the ground quite easily if Benfica-Sporting ends in a draw.


EDIT: Ok, now I'm convinced that no one wants to win the league. Wow.. did not expect Sporting to drop points as well! If only Cardozo had scored that penalty >_<

Haha, you said it! Not one team wants to be clear winners of the league this season.

It’s really testing your emotions with the many ups and downs, which is what I love football. When Benfica were awarded a penalty right at the end of the match I instantly thought all three points would be heading back to Lisbon. Of course that would have meant Benfica would have been 6 points ahead of Porto, but thanks to a poor Cardozo penalty it’s just the four points between us. If next weekend’s Lisbon Derby ends in a draw and we beat Paços then we’re back to where we were before this weekend occurred meaning we haven’t been punished for losing to Maritimo as much as we should have done, perhaps?

I find this season great viewing and seeing Sporting in the mix makes it all the more enjoyable. Come the end of the season when it won’t be Porto holding the trophy I may take this comment back, but it is great to see them back up there and challenging us both for the title. It makes this weekend’s Derby match even more significant too. The match is always big, you don’t need me to tell you that, but with them being title contenders means this game isn’t just about getting one over your rivals, the three points would be crucial for either side.

I find it typical that last week in the Taça we beat both beat Maritimo and Gil Vicente, yet in the league we drop points.

Selling Lucho has been a blow but to have Fernando out for this game really didn’t help, you could see the gap in the midfield. There was just limited or even nothing at all in terms of creativity and again you said it, Quaresma is the only player we have to add the creativeness to this side. As for Defour and Quintero, both were as poor as each other. Hopefully one of them can really fit into that midfield and step it up to not make the loss of Lucho be felt so much.

I agree, the pitch at the Barcelos was in an awful state to the point where I have seen better in the Non-League grounds that I visit. I think the introduction of Cardozo was a strange choice but I say JJ saw it as an opportunity to get him some minutes and back to being match fit, possibly looking to the game next weekend.

As for Sporting, I think they were quite unlucky not to get all three points in this game but Ricardo was brilliant in goal. William Carvalho picked up a yellow card so will be suspended for the match at the weekend. A huge blow for Sporting with how important he has been for them, great news for Benfica though.

Alan’s goal for Braga was lovely but it wasn’t enough to even get them a point, a good win for Belenenses though.

And before the weekends games we have the Taça de Portugal to keep an eye on. Hopefully for Porto it’ll allow the midfield to sort itself out a bit but against Estoril we’ll probably struggle. I’m going to be keeping a close eye on Paços-Olhanense though, a great bottom of the table clash. Quite annoyed it’s on tomorrow night along and will clash with the Benfica and Porto matches. Why is the Liga match on a Wednesday?

Sporting have the easiest ride out of all of us though. Only the four games for them this month with Benfica and Porto having eight games in total due to still being in all competitions. So, if it ends up like last season when I feel fatigue played a huge factor into the fall of Benfica, these busy schedules may play into the hands of Sporting perfectly. We shall see!

(Sorry, long post!)

PSG/Monaco!

Counting down to it. Should be a rout for PSG tbh. But they like making things difficult for themselves.


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Monaco just equalised. Fabinho forcing an OG out of T. SIlva. Seriously, PSG. Love kicking themselves in the foot. Completely took their leg off once they went a goal up. Completely deserved for Monaco.




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shocking, have some money on PSG as well -_-

Abidal nearly let PSG score as well

Funniest **** I've ever seen. He basically stop the ball in the middle of the 6 yard box with 2 PSG players around him.


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dat control and spin from Zlatan tho

If he scored that


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