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Wed. February 22, 2023
UEFA Champions League - First Knockout Round First Leg
Benfica (1st in Portugal Liga ZON Sagres) vs. Dover (3rd in Premier League)
Estadio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Lisbon, Portgual
Betting Odds: Benfica: Evens (Favourites) Draw: 11-5 Dover: 11-5
Past Meetings: 0W 0D 0L
Benfica are in a pretty good battle with Porto at the top of Portugal's top league, with Benfica currently leading by 3 points with a 15-2-2 record and looking for their fourth consecutive Liga ZON Sagres championship. They are two times Champions League winners (1961 & 1962) and finished runners up in 1990. This is a huge club by almost any measure, valued at £254 million (ranked 12th in the world) and they spent over £46 million so far in player signings for this season, notably spending £16.5 million on 23 year old DC Lorenzo Giacalone from Ascoli. Their leading scorer is striker Carlos Matto, who has 24 goals in 33 games but he's just returning to full training and won't play today. In his place will be 9 goal man Gustavo Garcia and I'll also be mindful of attacking midfielder Djamel El Hadjari, who has 11 goals in 32 matches. This is a deep club.
We will start as good a lineup as possible today. Gian Marco Fanfoni will be in midfield and Kostas Zagos is at right fullback and Salim Loucif will play DC with Andrea Rocca and Rayane Hamon still nursing injuries. Otherwise it's our normal starters. Counter attacking mentality on the road today.
Dover: 4-4-2 Counter
GK - I. Wilke
D - R. Gaucho, C. Contreras, S. Loucif, K. Zagos
M - A. Bamba, N. Cairney, G. Fanfoni, G. Bolis
S - S. Andrea, Chiquinho
Bench - M. Yilmaz, D. Traore, S. Spall, E. Harvey, G. Allan, Z. Bardi, P. Moses
Benfica come out in a 4-2-3-1 with Garcia up front and El Hadjari directly behind. The shocker is that leading scorer Carlos Matto is playing today at right wing despite being far from fully fit. I will instruct our players to tackle him hard - there's no way he can last more than a half and I'm wondering how effective he can be today. Gaston Monzon is their keeper. I tell the team they can win tonight and pull aside young Gian Marco Fanfoni to tell him I have faith in him tonight.
8' - We get an early chance with Shanon Andrea but he's on his weaker foot and the shot is turned aside by Monzon.
33' - No shots on goal for either side but we're doing well so far. Their lone striker Garcia is out of the game after a hard challenge by Salim Loucif that went without a foul call. On an ensuing play, Kostas Zagos gets a yellow card for a takedown.
45'+2 - Their striker substitute, Mohamed Said, gets past a sliding Loucif and is in on a race with Contreras. Said shoots but it's right at Wilke.
HALFTIME - Couldn't be more dull. We held a whopping 59% of possession and outshoot them 5-4 (1-1 on target). Yawn. I tell the team I'm pleased but I'm thinking about opening it up a bit to try to get that coveted away goal. For now, I'll stick with this tactic and counter mentality.
48' - In a game of few chances, we get a free kick and Cairney's cross is headed just over by Gianluca Bolis. A legitimate chance there.
51' - Benfica has a corner and El Hadjari takes the kick. It's to the near post and super sub Said heads it into the yawning cage and Benfica lead. BENFICA GOAL 0-1
We need to move to a control mentality now. We need a goal.
54' - Chiquinho runs down the right, avoids a tackle by the left fullback and crosses into the box. It's a bit too far away from the goal line though and Bamba's header is easily saved by Monzon.
65' - Shanon Andrea with a yellow card now. We're generating nothing against these guys.
72' - Andrea is out and Paul Moses comes in.
73' - We get possession and Chiquinho feeds a ball into Moses. He simply BURSTS past the defender, gets into the area and shoots and it curls past Monzon into the right corner of the net! HOLY CRAP! Instant impact from Paul Moses and we're level!!! DOVER GOAL 1-1
We move back to a counter attack mentality. Benfica are now in a 5-3-2 with Matto up front. He's only at about 50% health right now but they've used all of their substitutes.
78' - Gianluca Bolis is out and in comes Graham Allan.
80' - Wilke has to make a diving stop off a Said shot. He's been excellent for them since coming on…very dangerous.
90' - Four minutes of extra time. We take out Gian Marco Fanfoni and bring in Shaun Spall.
Good result!
Benfica 1 - 1 Dover
Goals - Paul Moses (7.3)
Assists - Chiquinho (7.0)
Man of the Match - Paul Moses
Other Dover Notables - Arsene Bamba (7.0)
Attendance - 62,917
We hold 57% of the possession but are outshot (a rare occurrence) 13-10 (5-4 on target). A very good result and a key away goal gives us an advantage heading home for the second leg!
-- We will lose two players in the return leg due to yellow card accumulation. Both Shanon Andrea and Kostas Zagos will miss that contest.
-- Benfica striker Gustavo Garcia suffered a torn calf muscle on that challenge from Salim Loucif. He'll miss FIVE MONTHS of action for them - it was a brutal challenge and I'm lucky Loucif didn't get a red card.
Premier League Update
--Man City beats up on Chelsea 3-0, a good result for us despite the fact that City move ahead of us. We drop to fourth place but stay five points back of first on the table. It will be super competitive for the coveted Champions League positions for next year between us, Chelsea, United, City and Arsenal.
Injury Update
-- Both Andrea Rocca and Mancini have resumed light training. Rocca is closer to being back but it's great to see some progress finally being made. Rayane Hamon is our only player not taking part in training right now.
Dover U18 Update
-- The kids win 5-2 over MK Dons U18s. Striker Tomas Liska scores a hat trick in the game and new midfielder Felix Hernandez scores a pair.
Premier League Update
-- As we prepare for our League Cup final, Premier League play goes on and Chelsea get back on the winning track with a 1-0 win over Everton. Sheffield Wednesday also win 3-1 over Sunderland to maintain their hold on 6th place.
Next Up
-- We head to a sold out Wembley Stadium to face Arsenal in our first ever League Cup final!
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