Taça de Portugal - Match of the Season Edition

By: Greg | April 17th, 2008

Sporting Simply put, I haven’t watched / been a part of a match that was this exciting or entertaining for at least a year…

Taça de Portugal Semifinal — Sporting 5 - 3 Benfica — I watched this game at a Portuguese bar that was probably 75% Sportinguista. Suffice it to say the first sixty five minutes were not our best game. Benfica came out firing on all cylinders and were a class above Sporting. The Lions looked like a team that was playing their third game in a week (they were) and were out of sorts. Rui Costa opened the scoring for Benfica with a great run on to a ball which he poked through Sporting keeper Rui Patricio’s legs from about six yards out. Nuno Gomes (no, seriously, he scored) parked the second from a few feet out on a cross. At this point it was about a half an hour gone and there was one Benfiquista woman shouting and talking so much shit that we were all starting to get pretty annoyed. Big mistake on her part.

The second half started and Bento had already taken off Adrien Silva for Izmailov in the midfield in the first half when he began tinkering some more. He subbed in the largely ineffective Romagnoli for Derlei to try to add some presence forward and it worked. In the sixty-seventh minute the flood gates opened as Sporting pounded the Benfica defense with cross after cross, and attack after attack. Finally this paid off with a strike from Yannick Djalo to half the visiting Eagles’ lead to 2 - 1. The pressure continued and Liedson converted a grounder past Quim from about fifteen yards out in the seventy sixth minute to tie the game. At this point the aforementioned Benfiquista woman had now shut her mouth and had a million screaming drunks dancing and returning the shit talking. To make matters worse for Benfica (who looked like a pub or recreational team at this point when defending) Derlei opened his account on the seventy ninth minute from five yards out on a grounded cross to make it 3 - 2. You can imagine the pandemonium in the bar at this point.

However, all was not lost for Benfica, as on a rare second half move forward, they managed to get the ball to Cristian Rodriguez who parked an absolute screamer from about twenty yards out to tie the game at 3 - 3. Cue the Benfiquista woman to start her bullshit again.

Nonetheless, she was quickly silenced by Yannick Djalo who scored his second on a deflected shot from about twenty two yards out to make it 4 - 3 on the eighty seventh minute. Then, to top it all off, Simon Vukcevic volleyed a cross past Quim in stoppage time to make it 5 - 3.

I can’t write a blog that would even come close to describing the emotion and the events associated with this match. The quick goal highlights below don’t do the match justice either. The second YouTubage is a cute take on the match, with music, from a clearly Sportingista viewpoint. This is one of those games where, if you weren’t there, you just don’t know. My voice is still absent from my throat. Jornada 27 preview comes tomorrow. See you then.