This post covering the Celtic - Benfica Champions League game is somewhat late in coming.  Granted I have been very busy, but mostly I am disappointed. The odds of Benfica continuing in Champions League play are very slim. Benfica would need to win the next two games and expect that the scores from the other games help us out. The chance of coming in third in the group and playing in the UEFA Cup are also very narrow.

For the Celtic game Camacho put Edcarlos back on defense and moved Katsouranis to midfield again. The rest of the team was basically the same one we have seen with Cardozo the only real forward. The teams played and even game until Aiden McGready scored the only goal of the game at the 45 minute mark.

Once again and with an urgent need to score goals and win, Camacho was anything but aggressive with his substitutions. His first switch was when he removed Maxi Pereira to put in Di Maria at the 62 minute mark.  He would later take out Rui Costa to put in Bergessio (not exactly a  “hot hand”), and took out Cardozo to put in Nuno Gomes.  He could clearly have done a little more to try to win the game,  like removing Binya, who is a more defensive player.

Binya would go on to be the (very) negative highlight of the game.  He would be red carded at the 85 minute mark because of a deliberate attempt to hurt a Celtic player.  I saw the image on TV once and I was not able to see it a second time.  It was brutal.  This is not the first time he does this kind of a thing.  Frankly I don´t think he should be playing for Benfica.  Granted most teams have an “enforcer”, he just went too far.  Hopefully Petit will be coming back soon and we will be seeing much less of Binya in the future.

Benfica´s next game will be playing against Boavista at Stadium of Light on Sunday.  Hopefully Benfica can bounce back from this game with a win and hold on to the second place in Portuguese League play.