Benfica 1-0 Celtic: Bhoys in the Cellar
By: JT | October 24th, 2007
Celtic failed to hold on for a point they deserved when Oscar Cardoso chested down a nice through ball and lofted over the onrushing Artur Boruc in the 87th minute. Cardoso hit the woodwork twice in the second half, so in some ways it was a just reward for his play throughout the match.
Celtic started out in a cautious 4-1-4-1 formation, with Paul Hartley protecting the back four, and Chris Killen alone up front, leaving leading scorer Scott McDonald on the bench for some odd reason. A first half of poor play ensued as Celtic adjusted to an unfamiliar formation, and Benfica failed to break them down.
In the second half, Benfica continued to dominate and Celtic got their rare opportunities on the counter, with most of the Hoops attack revolving around Aiden McGeady. Boruc’s goal was under siege but it looked for long stretches like the Bhoys had things under control as the central defense pairing of Stephen McManus and Gary Caldwell continued to come up huge. In the end it was Cardoso who ended the Celts dream, taking the three point for the Eagles.
In Group D’s other match, Milan took Shakhtar Donetsk behind the woodshed in an impressive 4-1 beatdown. That victory puts Milan atop the group as they and Shakhtar have six points each. Benfica sits in third with Celtic in fourth due to today’s result. In a group yet to have a match end in a draw, things continue to get more interesting each match day.
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Comments
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You really think they deserved a point? From what I saw it looked like the only reason they were in the game was because of the woodwork, and because Boruc had 700 saves.
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I think Benfica deserved either a win or draw. I can’t say either side looked particularly fantastic. Benfica had the better chances, and were unlucky not to have one more goal, but Celtic wasn’t really that far behind. 1-0 to Benfica is a pretty realistic view of the game as it was, I think.
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Martha, I do think they deserved a point. They had a game plan to go for a nil-nil draw, which is an enormously risky, while not particularly adventurous proposition. We saw why today. You can be damn good (and lucky) for 98% of the game and still get burned in the last 2%. Its not particularly pleasing to the eye, but can still be great tactics and a great performance worthy of points. Shots on goal, etc. don’t always tell the whole story. They almost pulled it off away from home against a good team in a very difficult environment to defend the entire time, and to me thats worth something.
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