When we look back at the AC Milan Benfica game the only thing that matters is the final score. Benfica´s 2 to 1 loss at the home of the current Champions AC Milan did not look bad it newspapers and tv highlights all over the world today.

But for those of us that saw the game we know it could have been worse. When Benfica went down 2 to 0 early on in the game I actually feared that things would turn ugly. Benfica suffered an early goal at the 8 minute mark (the goalie Quim could have done much better here), and Milan kept pounding on our defense.

Camacho surprised everyone by paring Miguel Vítor with Edcarlos on defense and by moving Katsouranis up to mid-field to compensate for the missing Petit. The idea was to keep Milan as far away from the defense as possible and stop them early up court. Unfortunately the game proved that the young Miguel Vítor is not up to standards to play at this level.

Luis Filipe also played a mediocre game, sometimes it was just too horrible to watch. He actually missed passes to teammates a couple of yards away, this when he wasn´t actually getting in the way of things.

The only bright light in Benfica´s game was when Rui Costa touched the ball, clearly, even at his age, he is a step above the rest. But there was just too much Milan for so few “Rui Costas”. When Camacho took Rui Costa from the game close to the end he was greeted with a standing ovation from the Milan fans. It was a beautiful thing to see. For those of you who are not Benfica fans, Rui Costa played the last 5 years of his career in Milan before returning to Benfica last year.

While the game was all Milan, Benfica could have actually complicated things a little. When the score was still 1 to 0, Oscar Cardozo missed an open goal shot with the ball hitting the post. He would, a few minutes later, have another shot on goal but this time Dida (AC Milan goalie) was in the way. A few seconds later Milan would up the score to 2 to 0.

After being up by two goals Milan clearly played just to control the game, and not run any risks, but was still able to create some good scoring opportunities, and here Quim made up for not doing all he could on the first Milan goal. Benfica would score a goal by Nuno Gomes at the 93 minute mark to set the final score.

Benfica comes back to Lisbon with nothing lost as far as Champions League play is concerned. It is very unlikely that anyone will stop Milan from coming in first in the group, and it is also very unlikely that Milan not win all their games at home. On the other match in the group Shakhtar Donetsk beat Celtic 2 to 0.

Here are a few highlights from the game.