UEFA Champions League – Match Review: Benfica versus Hapoel Tel Aviv 2-0
Benfica kicked off their UEFA Champions League campaign with a convincing win over the Israeli Champions Hapoel Tel Aviv. Both the teams won their respective domestic leagues in the 2009-2010 season but given Benfica’s history with regard to the UEFA Champions League, the Portuguese giants were always favourites to win their first home tie of the group stages.
Tel Aviv had to qualify for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League after playing against the likes of Sarajevo F.C and Red Bulls from Austria in the second and third round of the UEFA Champions League’s qualification stages. It was a very tough task for Tel Aviv to even get a result at Benfica’s home ground given their impervious record in the past as far as European competitions are concerned.
Benfica have tremendous pedigree in the European Cup, they have ended up as runners up in the tournament on more than four occasions and have won the competition itself way back in the early 1960s. The Portuguese champions approached the match with an attacking line up of 4-4-2 which included the likes of Roberto, Ruben Amorim, Luisao, David Luiz, Fabio Coentrao, Carlos Martins, Javi Garcia, Gaitan, Aimar, Saviola, and Cardozo in the starting line up. On the substitutes bench for home team were the following players; Julio Cesar, Airton, Jara, Maxi Pereira, Nuno Gomes, Cesar Peixoto, Sidnei.
For Hapoel Tel Aviv, Enyeama, Bondarv, Douglas, Fransman, Ben Dayan, Rocchi, Yadin, Vermouth, Zahavi, Sahar, Shechter started the match whilst Ben Shaanan, Shivhon, Badir, Abutbul, Kende, Shish, Tamuz made up their substitutes bench. The referee for the encounter between Benfica and Hapoel Tel Aviv was Aleksei Nikolayev, from Moscow.
The first goal of the match was scored quite predictably by Benfica. They controlled the ball early on and built up strong attacking moves. In the 21st minute of the match, Aimar’s corner kick drifted out of the Tel Aviv penalty area but it was retrieved by Martins who cross it in again. This time the ball was met by Luisao, who scored with an expertly executed half volley from around fifteen yards out. Benfica pushed on after their goal and almost doubled their lead as Gaitan’s volley from just outside the Hapoel penalty area went wide of the mark.
Momentarily it appeared that Benfica’s missed chances to double their lead would come back to haunt them however this was not the case as their goal keeper pulled off some jaw dropping good saves to keep his team in the tie. Towards the end of the first half Benfica, gathered more pace as they increased their passing tempo and adding another dimension to their offense with some off-the-ball movement. Their standout performer in the first half was Pablo Aimar, the ex-Valencia man pulled strings in the midfield area to create opportunities in abundance for his team mates.
Benfica’s attempts on goal in the rest of the first half were all parried away by the on form Vincent Enyeama in the Tel Aviv goal. Due to his heroics, the first half ended with a score line of 1-0. Second half started off with Benfica resuming their dominance of the match, soon Aimar created another opportunity in the 51stminute of the match for Oscar Cardozo, the Paraguayan forward however skewed his shot way above the intended target.
In the 68th minute of the match, Cardozo finally found the back of the net as Vincent Enyeama spilled the shot from Pereira. This mistake allowed Cardozo to dispatch the ball into the back of the net to give his team a comfortable two nil victory. For the rest of the match, Tel Aviv found it hard to get their game going as the difference in quality between the two sides was quite apparent. At the final whistle, Benfica won the match by the score line of 2 goals to nil.
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