A hard fought win against Marítimo with a good performance taking into consideration the conditions had us starting to believe that this squad was turning a corner. Considering the last ditch miracle against Paços de Ferreira on Sunday, do we need to rethink that thought?

Since that absolute disaster at the Estádio do Bessa against Boavista what seems like forever ago, Benfica have been very hot and cold.

Defensively, they’ve looked unstable at times, and going forward, they haven’t really been able to put together a complete performance. Welcoming Paços de Ferreira to the Estádio da Luz gave Jorge Jesus’ men a chance to flex their offensive muscles, knowing that the visitors typically don’t opt for a park the bus approach.

Early control seems to be the name of the game as of late.

Benfica started well, pressed Paços’ defenders in their first phase of the attack, and because of that, got themselves a few chances to take the lead early.

First, Darwin saw his shot blocked by Jordi after Rafa wiggled his way into the box, and then Pizzi was served on a platter, only to pass the ball against the outside of the post.

Two clear cut chances to take the lead, and then, as has been the habit, Benfica found themselves behind.

You could argue that the goal should have been disallowed as the Paços de Ferreira player was blocking Ody’s line of sight, but, two Benfica players were also blocking his sight of the ball. So, should they have called it back? Sure, maybe, but, at that point we are grasping at straws.

At that moment, Benfica was in that complete mental block mode.

Moving the ball up the field is easy and natural, but then when they find themselves in their offensive third, it seems as if everyone is afraid to take the initiative. The only exception to that is Rafa. He was once again tireless off the ball, defended when he needed to, and going forward, he was just weaving in and out of defenders.

INTERESTING HALFTIME CHANGES

To start the second half, I was certain that Taarabt would have come off, moving Pizzi further back into the midfield. Now, imagine our reaction when Pizzi was the one who came off, taking into consideration the impact he’s had in the squad the last three matches. Not to mention the amount of times Taarabt gave the ball away cheaply.

What is he doing? Why did he take off Pizzi? I’m sure we all had a similar thought process.

Benfica increased the tempo and urgency from the start of the second half, but again, they just never really looked threatening. You know those matches where although they were playing poorly, the crowd would help them find that next gear, and you could feel the goals were coming? Yea, we all miss that feeling.

Fortunately, Rafa managed to create something from nothing, and got on the end of a well placed pass from Gilberto to tie the match at one goal each. Yes, you read that right, Gilberto and well placed pass were in the same sentence. To be honest, he may have been more surprised by the outcome than we were.

So surprised, he thought, hell, let me try that again, and he did just that. Another well placed pass from the Brazilian defender found Seferovic in front of goal… and… well, the outcome wasn’t the same as earlier. Our love / hate relationship with the Swiss international is alive and well, but, that’s a conversation for another day.

LAST MINUTE MIRACLE

As the seconds ticked away, my heart rate increased, and my son looked at me with a concerned look. Why the hell does he look so stressed? Daddy, is that Benfica on TV? Can you help me build these blocks?

No, not right now, I’m trying to watch the match. I’ll admit, I probably came across as extremely rude and maybe even angry, but, he’s still young, he’ll understand, right…?

Hope was beginning to fade away, and then, Chiquinho and Pedrinho came on in the 77th minute. You want to talk about completely deflating your hope, well, that did just that.

There weren’t many other options on the bench, but with two strikers on the pitch, I wouldn’t have been surprised to see Gonçalo Ramos come on for Darwin, who had a night to forget.

In the final minutes, Paços de Ferreira were still adventurous. Some would say they had chances to win it late, but because of their mindset of not sitting back, they ended up shooting themselves in the foot.

With seconds left, Nuno Tavares and Gabriel looked short of ideas on the left side. It was as if they had no clue it was late in the match. Let’s just keep the ball here between us both, and the final whistle will sound shortly.

And then… an absolute miracle fell from the sky.

One of the many long passes that Gabriel attempted in the second half found a Benfica player on the other end of it. Luca Waldschmidt found space between the defenders, and somehow, someway, headed the ball into the net and sent the players on and off the bench into a sigh of relief that I felt and heard through the TV.

I celebrated it like it was a championship, and then I got the usual look from my wife and son. Your dad has issues… You’re right, I do, but this Benfica side has bigger issues, and they need fixing, immediately!

Benfica had no business winning that match given the performance they put in. They can thank Pepa for not sitting back, parking the bus and even his players for not time wasting, because you know most teams in that position would have absolutely killed the clock.

Although the performance wasn’t great, it felt like one of those wins that you force your way into. All champions have those throughout a season, so could that have been one of ours? It felt a lot like that match against Gil Vicente in the 2013/14 season when Jorge Jesus was Benfica’s manager, and we somehow scored two miraculous goals in the 91st and 92nd minute to steal three points. Was Sunday’s win our 2020/21 version of Gil Vicente?