Benfica had its first win of the season on Sunday. It was an impressive win by 3 – 0, against Nacional, where Benfica traditionally has a hard time. This was a very big win. Had it not happened and things would have clearly gotten complicated seeing as how both Porto and Sporting won their respective games.

Benfica played its best game of the season. The defense, although not with the players that you will see on a regular basis, was solid. Katsouranis played a very big role substituting in for the injured Luisão and David Luiz.

At midfield, Rui Costa had a very good game and score a very beautiful goal. Even at his ripe age he is still an outstanding player. Counting with the league and with Champions League play, he is the top scorer on the team thus far with three goals.

At the forward positions, we had the outstanding young player the is Di Maria showing some more of the magic that he is going to be presenting us with. He is clearly the big time player that we expect him to be. Not only is he a great player, but he also goes after every ball like it was his last, and plays with a high degree of intensity.

Oscar Cardozo also had a good game, and scored two goals, one of which on a penalty kick. He has scored his first two goals of what we all expect will be many more. This time Camacho did what was expected, with the only surprise being the inclusion of Maxi Pereira on the starting line-up. This was a surprise since he had just arrived earlier in the week.

I leave you with a clip of the games highlights.