Guimaraes supporters w a message to FSCB prez https://desporto.sapo.pt/futebol/li...ensagem-ao-dono-do-fcsb-corta-a-cabeca-idiota
He actually came out and apologized for his comments after. That 2nd leg should have been 3 or 4-0 Europa League groups have been drawn - Guimarães will have a tough group to contend with. At least they can play with no pressure. Group D - Sporting, PSV Eindhoven, Rosenborg, LASK Group F - Arsenal, Eintracht Frankfurt, Standard Liege, Guimarães Group G - FC Porto, Young Boys, Feyenoord, Rangers Group K - Besiktas, Braga, Wolverhampton , Slovan Bratislava
Benfica lost (how bad is RDT from a scale of 0 to -10?) and Sporting losing... Let's hope Porto and Braga do better.
2 wins today at least saved this week of games in Portugal. Good on Braga especially for going to England and getting a win.
Yeah not a great week but the two latest games saved it Benfica 1-2 Leipzig PSV Eindhoven 3-2 Sporting CP Standard Liege 2-0 Vitoria Guimaraes Porto 2-1 Young Boys Wolves 0-1 Braga Home loss by Benfica was the most disappointing of the group, though Leipzig apparently played well and deserved the win. They may be a dark horse to win the group. The Vitoria loss looks a bit worse than it was; the teams played pretty even but VG gave up an own goal midway through the second half and then a stoppage time goal when they were pressing for an equalizer. Vitoria had 55% of the possession and 6 on target shots to 2 for Liege. Braga clearly the most impressive win of the bunch, against a Wolves team that was hugely dominating in EL qualifying, though they're at the bottom of the EPL table this year. Moving on up with 3.7 UEFA points, though need to get a more balanced contribution.
I think next round we can overtake Russia. Benfica face Zenit, a win would be huge, but even if not, Sporting *should* win against the weaker opposition in the group, Braga seems to be taking Europa League seriously and Porto are clear favourites in the group.
Vitoria may do all right too. They really deserved at least a point against Standar Liege yesterday. If they can keep up the form and the confidence they may not get out of a very hard group (Arsenal and last year's semifinalist Eintracht Frankfurt) but they could certainly get a few respectable results, hopefully build on that for the future.
how are you guys feeling about Benfica heading to Russia and getting 3 pts? I personally think Leipzig is the best team in the group and will likely win it.. to be honest.. they totally deserved the win in Portugal (altho Benfica missed a couple beautiful chances)... RDT is absolutely horrible and i dont understand why he started. The group could easily in my opinion look like this after next match Leipzig 6 Benfica 3 Lyon 1 Zenit 1 Does anyone feel confident about Benfica advancing out of this group? Or has the 1st match changed everyones opinion?
They can get a win in Zenit if they play smart. Good defense and swift counter attacks with the striker providing holdup play. All we need is one more win than russia this week in europe to over take them.
Benfica....why are they so crap in the CL? I hope they can get the EL spot and start earning some points.
Man, i dont even know what to say about Benfica. I mean, ultimately, as much as i am a supporter of Benfica and will always love the Portuguese league, i do often rip on it for its lack of talent (superior talent) .. in other words, i dont believe the league is very good and it often shows when going h2h against other European clubs in these tournaments. The group is still open.. and anyone can win this group.. but Benfica need to start earning some points and have a great chance to do that with 2 b2b games against Lyon.. i dont see Zenit taking more then 1 point from Leipzig.
Despite the poor week, we still got closer to Russia with a win and a draw from Sporting and Braga. But we need to do better.
I dont know what to make of Benficas chances to beat Lyon tomorrow. I honestly expected more from them against Zenit, and they played a horrible match. How everyone feel about Portuguese teams chances in Europe this week?
Color me surprised that Benfica beat Lyon, the team that was top of the group. Man they needed that to save face, get some UEFA points, and stay in the discussion for getting out of the group. They're still last, and have to play Lyon and Leipzig away in the final three games, so honestly at this point salvaging a few more points and scraping into third place would not be a bad outcome.
We are creatures of recency bias. Therefore, me saying Benfica looked good and can progress is out of what i remember seeing yesterday. That being said. i dont want to get ahead of myself. A couple of key injuries suffered yesterday could impact Benfica drastically dependent on how severe they are. A tie away to Lyon would be nice and would put them in a pretty solid position. Ideally, it would be amazing to walk out of Lyon with 3 pts.. i dont see that though. Worst case.. Leipzig wins 9pts Lyon ties 5 pts Zenit 4 pts Benfica 4 pts 2nd spot is def up for grabs. (The whole group is)
Here's what we're looking at: Porto v. Rangers. Tough game but Porto needs to win games like this if they want to go deep in the EL. As it stands their group is dead even. Besiktas v. Braga. Very tough game, one of Turkey's big 3 and away in Istanbul is no joke. Getting a point would be a good outcome for Braga, though Besiktas is now bottom of the group on no points so maybe Braga could get more, stay top of the group. Sporting v. Rosenborg. Winnable game against winless team at bottom of the group, and at the Alvalade. Sporting should get all three points if they want to compete to win the group. Arsenal v. Vitoria. Yikes. If Vitoria could get a point that would be a huge outcome. They've actually played really well even in a tough group so it's not totally out of the question. Maybe Benfica beating Lyon is a good omen that Portugal can pick up points across the board, we'll see.
wow Vitoria de Guimaraes could of been 3 or even 4 up tonight don't take your chances you go and lose 3-2
Dude so tragic about Vitoria. That could have been a famous result but they let it slip away at the death. Still, a good though not a great week. Two wins, two draws, one loss. Right now only Sporting and Braga are in position to qualify; Porto is third on goal difference; Benfica is last but in the fight; Vitoria is last and likely out, though they have played really well and deserve better. Portugal up to 5.7 points overall, placing them 6th in Europe, ahead of France (10th, 8.33 points) and Russia (23d, 3 points). If competition ended today, Portugal would be ahead of Russia over the run of the last five years (though by less than a single point, so this could change a lot).
Another bad loss by Benfica, 1-3 at Lyon. But on a much happier note, finally finally Vitoria gets a break--thanks to a 90th minute equalizer they scrape a point at home to Arsenal. Not sure they can qualify out of the group but it's theoretically possible still, so long as Frankfurt does not beat Standard Liege tomorrow. And they twice hit the post so could have had all three points. I continue to think that they could have done better in this competition with just a bit more luck.
Sporting and Braga with convincing away wins, 2-0 and 3-1 at Rosenborg and Besiktas, respectively. Porto continues to underwhelm, this time going down 0-2 to Rangers at Ibrox. Both Sporting and Braga are top of their respective groups, but neither is that secure in that spot because each of them have a bottom-feeder with no points in their groups. So both Sporting and Braga each have to play both of the more competitive teams in their groups, while each of their opponents gets one game against the no-hoper. That said, barring a total collapse, Braga will advance because the worst they could do is tie Slovan Bratislava on points, which is very unlikely. Sporting is in a trickier spot, since they have a two-point lead on both PSV and LASK but need to play both of them as the remaining two group games. And despite their weak performances, Porto is not out, not even close really. They are last in the group but only three points behind the group leader, so if they win out they would almost certainly qualify. Whether they can given their European form thus far is questionable. Guimaraes is likely eliminated but if they can grab a point against Arsenal, they may be able to get some more points vs Frankfurt or Liege. Benfica is not eliminated either but they have played so poorly that at this point finishing third would seem like a great outcome. They need to get at least a point against Leipzig, then all three at home against Zenit. That would pretty much lock up third spot, maybe even be enough to qualify depending on other results.
Its a shame the results Benfica have gotten. I dont believe they have played as badly as the results indicate they have. I do agree though, at this point..3rd place would almost feel like an achievement (which is embarrassing). A lot needs to get right for Benfica to advance out of this group.. and given how the results have unfolded thus far, i dont see it happening.
Our league needs to go back to a cap on foreigners, I’m old enough to remember when we had teams full of portuguese players and our teams did well
Just a few notes, Braga played at home not away. But they should qualify. Sporting play PSV at home, considering the form this season I wouldn't say we are favourites but a win would qualify us even before the last game vs. LASK. I still think Porto will qualify, they are better than Young Boys and Feyenoord and I think they will scrape the wins and go through. Guimaraes got a nice point vs. Arsenal but are virtually eliminated, hopefully though they can spring a surprise and get a few more points. Benfica need to seriously step it up, at least for 3rd place and we can continue to have possibly 4 teams in Europe.