goon wrote:
I’m still struggling to come to terms with the difference between this game and Leeds. Quick, one touch passing and good movement vs ponderous football and sloppy passing. I don’t want to be one of those guys that blames Xhaka for everything, but I do think he played a big part in what we saw tonight. Central midfielders dictate the tempo of the game and he was seemingly trying to slow it down to walking pace.
Benfica were really good, thay's the difference. Not in attack, but they pressed just the right amount, dropped off incredibly quickly and were set very well in formation in their defensive third, which made pulling them around really hard. Our passing it quickly in attack counted for very little because they just sat in and let us pass it, rather than chase it and leave gaps. They also passed very patiently, which slowly but surely strangled the life out of our pressing game. We realised it was costing us a lot of energy without producing hardly any turnovers.
It was boring to watch, and they really lacked ambition, but sometimes you've got to give the opposition credit and say they had our number tactically. The next leg is a new game though, and we clearly have more quality and should have won this game regardless.
