The Benfica - Sporting derby ended with a nil - nil tie on Saturday.  It was a lively and exciting game, where the only thing missing were goals, especially from our side.  But like I had predicted yesterday the game ended with a tie, and at least for the time being Benfica is out of the running for the first place in the Portuguese League.

With Luisão back on the squad, Benfica was very strong on defense.  Nelson also played very well, both on defense, and on the offensive side when he had a chance.  While it is clear that he is much better that Luis Filipe, the fact that he has some competition for the spot could be a motivating factor for him.

Benfica also played a solid game at midfield.  Katsouranis and Maxi Pereira both played solid games, and Katsouranis actually had a chance or two to try scoring a goal.  Rui Costa was his usual self, but after a very good beginning was heavily watched by the Sporting players.  He had a great shot on goal that the Sporting keeper defended to the front, with Nuno Gomes missing, the almost open goal, rebound.  Nothing we haven´t unfortunately grown accustomed to.

Di Maria didn´t play a bad game, but has been losing steam.  Sometimes he passes the ball when he shouldn´t, but most of the time just dribbles until he finally ends up losing the ball to his opponents.  He did however manage to have a nice play where he escaped Sporting defense, but, when he could have shot on goal with a high degree success, tried to pass the ball to Nuno Gomes.  Not only did the attempted pass not reach Nuno, but had the ball gotten to him he probably would have missed it anyway.

Cardozo came in late in the game for Nuno Gomes and was rather ineffective.   Freddy Adu played a solid 10 minutes that Camacho gave him.  There was actually a foul on him at the 90 minute mark that the referee could have called a penalty kick on.

In the end, a 0 - 0  tie, with FC Porto thanking both teams.