Podence off for Battaglia Great game. Now we'll see our more usual lineup with Bruno fernandes further forward
Well great goal there from Chaves from nowhere. But frustrating to not finish with a cleansheet. 5-1 final
Chaves are bad this year, which is too bad, they were fun to follow last season. Rio Ave on the road this Friday. Hopefully the lid is off with this goal outburst
Looks like Dost is getting a better understanding of the language. Used to have to do these flash interviews entirely in English
JJ made all the right moves. Playing Podence, subbing in Battaglia, giving Doumbia minutes. Everyone played well with the exception of a couple of players with dumb turnovers. How they steal a PK from us while Benfica dives for two, constant fouls and no yellow cards for Chaves, etc. If Chaves weren't so horrible, refs would have robbed us. Guaranteed
Yeah I’m still laughing at the Gelson incident, like you say though, good thing Chaves is so bad so we can laugh at it
Tough game next Friday - we will need to be at our absolute best to beat a good Rio Ave team who have taken points from Benfica and could have beaten them. Player ratings: Patricio - A mere spectator but ended up conceding a goal on the only real chance Chaves had all game at the end. 7/10 Piccini - Getting better every game, defensively really solid and getting better offensively. IMO our best defender today. 9/10 Coates - Solid performance defensively along with Mathieu, didn't compromise us. 8/10 Mathieu - Solid performance as well, handled everything that came his way. 8/10 Coentrao - Continues to play 80 minutes and not allow anything by him. As soon as he leaves the pitch we always suffer a goal. 8/10 William - Didn't have the armband today which was strange I guess. Had a couple of moments where he lost possession in the 1st half but picked up his usual game after. 8/10 Bruno Fernandes - Might have been his worst performance so far. Several moments where he lost possession cheaply which could have cost us against another team. Maybe he's just spoiled us with his amazing start to the season... 6.5/10 Podence - Finally gets a start and wow did he deliver. Just turned 22 years old yesterday and celebrated that with one of his best performances. He plays so well as a "joker" swapping positions with Gelson causing headaches to Chaves' defense today. 9/10 Gelson - Combined well with Podence (see above) although not as brilliant with his decisions which continue to be frustrating. 6.5/10 Acuna - His first two league goals today capped off a good performance. 8.5/10 Dost - Returned to his goal scoring ways and with a hat trick no less. Also was involved in the other two goals. Not only that but he drops deep to lay off balls to the flanks on counters. MOTM and happy to see our Flying Dutchman back. 10/10 Subs: Battaglia - came on for Podence to shut up shop 7/10 Doumbia - came on for the last 15 minutes for Gelson and played alongside Dost. He scored a goal waved off for offside and had a couple other interesting plays. 6.5/10 Bruno Cesar - maybe with Bruno instead of Jonathan we won't allow a cheap goal? Nah nevermind. 6/10