Benfica’s defeat at home against Gil Vicente threw any remaining hope out the window. Now, it’ll be a hard fought battle to snatch second place.
Despite crashing out of the Europa League against Arsenal, Benfica had seemed to find their rhythm. Six straight wins in the league, having scored 15 and conceding zero, that’s one hell of a run.
Now, I understand that against Boavista, Braga and most recently Paços de Ferreira, Benfica played up a man, but that doesn’t guarantee you a win or even a draw.
Generally you could argue that things could be more difficult against 10 as the opposition will sit even deeper and leave very little space to operate in. As a recent example, Leeds United play well over 45 minutes down a man away to Manchester City, and came away with a 1-2 victory in the dying moments.
Therefore, yes Benfica did have a man advantage in three of those six wins, but when those players were sent off, the result was still 0-0 in all three.
Back to the topic at hand, whether you were convinced or not, this side was solid at the back, they were controlling matches much better, and Seferovic looked like he had his sights set on a Ballon D’Or…
And then, Gil Vicente happened.
Just when this team had me and I’m sure many others starting to have a glimmer of hope, they completely pull the rug from underneath you. And I know there are many of you out there, you just didn’t want to admit it in fear of this happening, I get it.
Point the finger at who ever the hell you’d like, but I’ll tell you one thing, Jorge Jesus isn’t the one who told three players to attack a ball from a throw-in in Gil Vicente’s half, which then a simple pass took all three out of the play. End result, Gil leading 0-1.
JJ and those around him have plenty of blame to go around, but I’m sorry, that is basics football, and while he may have got the tactics wrong given his opponent, the players are the ones on the pitch, and that first goal was shocking in many ways.
From the opening whistle, they looked lethargic and disjointed. Again, there are plenty to blame for that, but that doesn’t excuse the terrible decision making and misguided passes we witnessed.
Then for JJ to come out after the match and say Gil Vicente wasted time… come on! Tactically Gil got it spot on, they wanted it more, and on the day, they were the well deserved winners.
Second place is now the main focal point, yet even that will be difficult. While we depended on ourselves when it came to that second spot, now, we depend on our rivals from the north. Even if we beat them in a few weeks time at home, we still will need more than that.
On the other side, another mishap let’s Braga back into the argument… could you imagine finishing out of the top three after the season we’ve all just gone through…
