Going to start with the Champions League: Benfica: Are basically the best quality team among the portuguese trio. But only that doesn't make a team work and hopefully they will crave that performance against Austria Wien for a long time. Otherwise I won't be surprised if they finnish third. Considering their rivals (Manchester United, Celtic Glasgow, Copenhagen) they have everything to go to the next round. They're definitely stronger than Celtic or Copenhagen and more solid in center midfield and some other areas compared to MU. Everything is on their side. Sporting: Paulo Bento turned Sporting into a very solid team that in my opinion can make wonders. Against Inter will be very tough but I don't share the same opinion of Bayern Munich. The germans are facing tough times and I think they really underrate Sporting's side so that's an advantage. The away games are going to be very difficult but if they manage to get at least 3 draws or 1L-1D-1W then they'll do fine and shock Europe. FC Porto: An incognita. Porto do have a great midfield and a good goalkeeper but lack options in the attack and have a bad defense in the wings. Good that Jesualdo decided to keep with the 3-4-3 system but any other choice would seem crazy. In my opinion R. Costa should join Pepe and P. Emanuel in the centre but when it comes to the wings...Bonsingwa was not cut out for that and Cech is terrible. Since Porto doesn't have any other choice than put up with them, let's hope they don't crap big time. Same can be said about the strikers this year...not gifted enough to represent the club. Anyway, their rivals are all tough, specially Arsenal. If this Porto changes with Jesualdo for the better than it's possible they can reach the last 16. UEFA Cup: Sp. Braga: The key to beat Chievo, is winning at home and hold a draw away. But Braga must take this in consideration...portuguese don't have a good record against the italians and if even they manage to win at home...it will definitely be by a small margin. 50/50 I say. Vítória Setúbal: I'm not aware of Vitoria's potential this season but I still think it's possible for them to defeat Heerenveen of Holland. After the league starts, I'll have a better perspective of Vitoria's chances. Nacional: Rapid Bucharest of Romenia won't be easy for Nacional and liek I said about Vitoria...once the league starts I'll know how far can the madeirenses go.
I'm sorry, but after the first sentence it's hard to read the rest. "Benfica: Are basically the best quality team among the portuguese trio." If that's your opinion you should say so, but to a lot of experts it's pure nonsense.
>>> In my opinion R. Costa should join Pepe and P. Emanuel in the centre but when it comes to the wings... Lets hope R. Costa does NOT join Pedro Emanuel.. We'll prob need him on the field! ***Get well P. Emanuel and P. Mendes!!
Braga is gonna get the shallacking of the season Aggregate Prediction 1-6 Nacional is gonna tie at home and lose away Aggregate Prediction 0-2 Setubal is gonna come close but no cigar with a 1-1 tie at home and 0-0 away Aggregate Prediction 1-1 Benfica is gonna get 10 points Sporting will get 7 points Porto will get 8 points
I will have to agree after reading the first sentence I almost choked on a donut... Also...what exactly is "best quality" that's a bit redundant... But since you did have the balls to write it we should respect your opinion... But if the Lampioes are the "best quality" team...then we shouldn't even play the season...let's just crown them winners
What do you mean we should. I thought we already had done that. Until we loose our next game of course.
It certainly is not Sporting?Since when does unproven young kids make Sporting better and have more quality in their team then Benfica?Explain to me that please. Plus,he is talking about EUROPE,not in Portugal. CL is a whole different league bro,something Sporting will have a taste for the first or second time. Benfica and the players know what its about,Sporting does not.
Good stuff Daniel, I agree with everything you said. Too bad you got bashed for giving your honest opinion. Instead of being up in arms in who Daniel believes is the best quality team, why don't you guys just comment on your teams chances, Daniel gave them a pretty positive review as well.
Let's be honest here, it was their first appearance in the CL, since it's existance. As for quality. Coach: Clueless as to how to adapt players to a tactical scheem. Keepers: Who knows which frangueiro will show up. Defense: Defenders that can only defend air balls, as for playing out of the back they don't have a clue. Midfielders: Besides caceteiro all others are looking for their retirement paycheck. Their slow, uncreative, basically they'll play every other week. Offense: They will score against mediocre teams like Vienna, with a midget that no defender takes seriously, and a Nulo that should resort to only play for the NT. Bench: They don't have any quality there either. So as far as quality Sporting, and Porto have ten times more quality, then this Lampiao side.
Haha, Dane Cook is a silly little bitch. Why don't you write a progress report for the largatos instead of worrying about Benfica. By the way, in 94/95 and 98/99 it was already known as the Champions League, but what would a largato know about that.
Wow Sporting gets their first taste at champions league and look at how the fans aare reacting. Already acting as if they have the dam title won already LOL Benfica>Sporting Go praise your squad thats totaly unready for this tournament and one that has NO experience what so ever to make it PAST the group stage. Yes we're slow with the likes of Simao and Manu in the midfield LOL. You have yound kids that are quick and you act as if they're all faster then Obefemi Martins LOL. Uncreative?We're talkign about Simao,Petit,Rui Costa and Manu not having ANY creativeness what so ever?LOL ok,theres a line between bias and just totally insane and you're very close. Miccoli is a PLAYMAKER not a goal scorer,I've said taht to you a million times,and you STILL don't get it,he wasn't coming to us to make us score a million goals for us,he was sent in to make plays distract the defenders to get NUNO GOMES,not Nulo,NUNO Gomes to score,and thats what he did then Nuno slowly died off towards the end of the season,and your boy Liedson barley caught up to Nuno Gomes,so whos better?It took Liedson the whole season to catch up to Nuno Gomes,it took Nuno Gomes half the season to get those goals. Which frangueiro?Who are you talking about?Because Moretto is third keeper,hes our only "frangueiro" on the team. Atleast our keepers play well during the season and give performances,unlike Ricardo who only shows up for the NT. Sporting and Porto having 10 times more quality then Benfica LOLOL OKAY right LOL oh my God like wow
I guess, in your opinion, this no quality Benfica side was good enough to make it to the Quarter-finals of the CL last year considering they're only major loss in the transfer season was Manuel Fernandes. They still have all their defenders that were good enough to get them there and have added Miguelito in the process. They still have Simao and Petit in the midfield. God help us, they still have Beto. They added some guy called Rui Costa. Added Manu to the wing. Added Katsarounis to the midfield. Yeah, that midfield looks terrible. Did you see how old Rui Costa looked against Austria Wien? Who do they have at forward? They lost, uh, Marcel? They still have Nuno Gomes, Miccoli, Mantorras, and added Fonseca. This side has no hope.
Sporting definitely has the tougher group in the CL on paper. But I think they will surprise many people in Europe. They will need to capitalize on their opponents under-rating them. Could Bento be the new Mourinho? Benfica I feel has a better than average shot at making it out of their group. They have some good experience on their side, and Rui Costa will provide that extra added leadership they will need. Porto has a realistic shot in their group as well. Anything less than a final 16 appearance, will be a disappointment. I don't feel they will have as much trouble scoring goals as the majority believe, but that's just a hunch on my part, and my opinion. Co's tactics proved innefective in last year's CL, hopefully Jesualdo can correct that this season. All in all, I hope all 3 clubs do well and continue to play a part in the football World taking notice of Portuguese futebol. Could you imagine all 3 making it past the group stage together? That would be terrific.
daniel, you're quite right! ok, leaving joking apart, i think that man u and celtic are very strong sides. manu has improved a lot from their bad exhibitions last season and celtic had a super team and signed good players (vennegoor of hesselink and gravesen)to add on. so it will depend mostly on the matches vs. copenhagen, which should be won both to play calmly and hopefully win one or both remaining home matches. sporting has a quite good team but i neither think they will manage to draw once again vs. inter (or even win), nor that they will have a big chance against bayern (even though i would prefer to see scp advance than bayern). i would say that anything better than 3rd place would be a positive surprise. porto... yeah, what shall i say about porto? great team it always has, i think they lost a bit of what made them one of the bigger teams in europe. it's the defence on an international basis that has not the quality than their midfield. the offence could also be a bit better. anyway, a realistic chance to go through to the round of 16. in the uefa cup teams, i think that only braga might get through to the group stages.
it was NOT benficas first appereance in the cl. just to help your memory a bit: 1991/92 (first year of cl) quarter finals (the quarter finals where held as groups and the winners of both groups played the final. we were 3rd and barcelona (the winner) was first). 1994/95 quarter finals (after beeing first in the group stages) 1998/99 group stages (where only the first ranked advanced and we were 2nd) last season i think you already emntioned it. now let's see what sporting managed to achieve: 1997/98 3rd of the group stages 2000/01 4th of the group stages i think that's it. prove me wrong...
Another Lampiao who has listend to his President for far too long... When you write something like "unproven kids" it only shows how ignorant the Lampioes are..just look at Scolari's last call up and tell me about the "unproven kids" As for CL History...the Lampioes have one good run, that coming last year...hardly a history of good performances... Not to mention that these "unproven kids" have seen themselves beat the Lampioes the last 3 times they have met....
we all know about what porto managed to do in the recent years and as i wanted to illuminate a lost mind , ther's no reason for you to bring this up as i don't need any porto-lessons...
Why don tyou worry about your team. SPorting was the pre season champ and they should be happy with that. Want to see how you guys do against Inter. and thsi time there will be no ref calling a PK against SCP just to call it back
What a douche... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League_Finals SL Benfica: 2 wins, 5 runner ups (1961, 1962) (1963, 1965, 1968, 1988, 1990) Sporting: 0 wins, 0 Runner ups, have you ever even made it past the group stages?!?!