Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave

[JuMeSyn]

Sticky here, please? :) Sunday we have the supercup. Rio Ave Win or Draw @ 2.80 (bet365) for a 0.45 stake Rio Ave DNB @ 6.00 (bet365) for a 0.30 stake Immense odds for anyone who knows what has been happening with Benfica lately. Benfica, 2013/2014 Champions, Portugal Cup Champions, League Cup Champions, Europa League Final. What could have possibly gone wrong in this pre-season? Everything. To start, let's take a look at last season's end main XI: Oblak; Siqueira, Luisão, Garay, Maxi Pereira; Enzo Perez, Ruben Amorim, Gaitán, Markovic; Lima, Rodrigo Oblak - Left for Atletico Madrid. Siqueira - Left for Atletico Madrid. Luisão - Stayed, but problems with injury. Only started training last Monday, no pre-season fitness for him.. Garay - Left for Zenit. Maxi Pereira - Stayed. Enzo Perez - Possibly leaving today or saturday for Valencia. Ruben Amorim - Stayed, but struggling with minor injuries sometimes. Will possibly be fit for supercup. Gaitán - Stayed, but rumoured to leave before 31/08 for Monaco. Markovic - Left for Liverpool. Lima - Stayed. Rodrigo - Valencia. This means that Benfica lost 7 first team players, and they also lost their bench. Cardozo, Benfica striker legend, left for Trabzonspor, and other bench players such as Bernardo Silva, João Cancelo and Ivan Cavaleiro also left on a loan. And why is everyone leaving? Well, mainly because of awful management. Benfica has had some very big financial problems lately. Their president held the cord to hold his big players just too much, and now everyone is leaving for better contracts in other leagues. Rumours that some players are also leaving as the house is burning over there when it comes to money. Seems like Benfica has to pay a big amount of money until the end of 2014 due to some loans. 85M€, to be precise. That is simply too much, so they have to sell and reduce costs. More than that, Benfica haven't brought anyone that is "great". They brought some talented players such as Benito, Talisca and Victor Andrade but they will struggle to make an impact due to being too young. Other such as Bebe (ex-Man Utd), Eliseu and Derley look like they can be solid attacking options in 1/2 months, but don't have the quality of Rodrigo, or Siqueira, or Cardozo. Other players that came such as Luis Filipe and Cesar are just awful, and can only mean agency businesses. Benfica's president has a rumoured history of corruption behind the scenes, he might just be making his money atm with some players. Jorge Jesus (Benfica's manager) already told that if Enzo Perez leaves, he will also leave with him. He said that in the press conference after losing against Valencia. Pre-season has been awful for Benfica W Estoril (1-0) L Sporting Lisbon, fierce rival (0-1) L Marseille (1-2) L Ajax (0-1) W Sion (2-0) L Athletic (0-2) L Arsenal (1-5) (bloody awful at the back) L Valência (1-3) 2 wins, 6 losses. 6 goals scored, 14 goals conceded. Couldn't be worse. That loss against Arsenal was just awful. Most of the players have no quality for Benfica, and GK Artur has to be one of the worst GKs ever. If Enzo is confirmed to leave during today or tomorrow, Benfica XI for sunday will be: Artur; Benito, Luisão, Jardel, Maxi Pereira; Talisca, Ruben Amorim, Gaitan, Salvio (super-sub last season), Lima, Derley. Some players don't give confidence at all (Artur, Benito, Talisca), others lack match fitness (Luisão, Jardel both CBs). Lima also seems to be not so goal-scoring free as last season. Bench is without any good players besides Ola John and Bebe. Rio Ave are major odds to win here. They looked very solid against Gotemburg in the Europa League qualifying match, and Pedro Martins is a good manager. I'm pretty sure they will give Benfica a hard time, and they stand a big chance of making history.

[froment]

Re: Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave

Sticky here, please? :) Sunday we have the supercup.

There is already sticky for Portugal this season, here. But since this is Super cup, it doesn't go there, it merits its own thread. Thanks for nice preview! :ok

[JuMeSyn]

Re: Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave Oh thanks. Looks like I was getting confused with the Western/Eastern stuff. No problem :)

[JuMeSyn]

Re: Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave Just to update, Benfica will have Enzo Perez available. He could make the difference. But I still rate Rio Ave as value nonetheless.

[MPLouis]

Re: Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave Benfica did win the league by 7 points last year though (Rio Ave were 11th). And they beat Rio Ave 1-0 in the final of the Taca de Portugal (Portuguese cup) and 2-0 in the final of the League cup. I've got a feeling there could be a similar scoreline here. I quite like Under 2.5 goals @ 1.82 and BTS NO @ 1.83 - both with Marathon

[MPLouis]

Re: Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave 0-0 after 90 minutes. Defences on top as usual in Portugal. From what I saw, Benfica had nearly all the chances but both sides seemed to defend pretty well. (I can't watch extra time)

[JuMeSyn]

Re: Portugal Super Cup, 10.August: Benfica vs. Rio Ave Have to say that it was lucky enough for Rio Ave to survive until ET, and there they had the chance to win it. Benfica created some chances, made a lot of shots even though some of them were bad, but were deserved winners. What matters is the bet itself. DNB voided, +0.81 for the double chance.