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A soccer field can measure up to 120 meters long and 90 meters wide, it is In the law, that of the Municipal Stadium of Arcos, in Vila do Conde, measures 105 x 68 m. He is not one of the most timid, nor does he enter the conversation of the greatest, but he becomes a little smaller, with each ball that Rio Ave starts because it is close to the area itself, a signal for Benfica to shorten a field physically that does not it shrinks, but, in practice, quite tight.
At the request of Jorge Jesús, sure of the possible, the team aligned the four defenses on the midfield line (where the offside starts to count), 105 slim meters for 52.5 and the team pushed against the area of Rio Ave, where he defined the first line of pressure with three players, to fall abundantly against each opponent or possible pass. Benfica annoyed, as far as possible, the favorite activity of the locals.
Loving so much the short construction, supported and in possession from the back, the faithful Rio Ave remained as he does things, he wanted to try, however, to advance with the ball on the grass and on the foot of his, but, with 10 opponents . in his half of the field, all pass options covered, he missed. And he made a lot of mistakes, forced by Benfica’s off-the-ball stance and the laudable loyalty he maintained in his play-building.
One, in the risk with which he injected the ball that Gabriel cut before reaching Geraldes, who ended up crossed by calm and technique on the heel of Everton to cushion, at first, and Waldschimdt shooting 0-1. Another, in the lazy Aderlan who tried to outwit the German, was stolen and the goal did not count for Darwin’s offside as he received the pass in the area. And another, in another ball recovered in a foreign field that the Germanic southpaw received and dribbled calmly until he hit the no goal.
Rare was the possession of the ball in which Rio Ave devised passing circuits to overcome the front row of opponents.
They found no resistance to the pressure of Filipe Augusto (Benfica, instead of scoring him, blocked the passing line) and reaching Geraldes implied taking more risks in the distance given to the passes. When he succeeded, the supposed design required to have Nélson Monte, a central defender, to stay behind without the ball was noticed: to have him, with the ball, as a third defender, to leave the band to Mané and to project Ivo Pinto at will. in the other one. The team didn’t get away with it.
That made it great to give Darwin so much open ground to fight for a long ball with an opponent and dozens of yards on his back, to the area. When he got there, he waited for three players to arrive and the pass he gave was claimed by Waldschmidt for all four championship goals. They counted half of the goals that Benfica scored, above all because of the form they chose to have when they kicked off the ball in the Rio Ave area.
Defending, Benfica’s back row kept short until shortly after game time, then lungs flailed, muscles didn’t respond as quickly and those who pushed up front took a little longer to get into position. Darwin, full of space, kept firing after another high recovery, but, from there, the team fell back the last line by 10, 15 meters.
MIGUEL RIOPA / LUSA
The Rio Ave center-backs already had seconds of oxygen with the ball, Filipe Augusto’s company appeared, the Brazilian returned to the available field with her, but the team did not give her a chance. The midfielders did not shake marks when moving. Gelson Dala’s fall to receive passes in space was already on the field, only the Benfica centrals blocked any reception and forced him to flee to places where he was harmless. They were also not helped by Aderlan’s rash actions and decisions, approaching every approaching ball.
And, until the end, Benfica opted for containment, without being so vertical in the first passes after becoming a thief.
With Weigl already at the side of Gabriel’s ghostly past, he no longer received a whim for every long and aerial ball that he tried, much more practical and low, to make play instead of shooting, the team attacked calmly, patiently and many people close to where the ball was. He scored, created, reached the area and, minutes from the end, the reward for the Brazilian was 0-3 in the area, after Seferovic fixed the ball for him.
Waldschmidt was, at all times, a magnet of tranquility with a ball, he attracted, fixed, touched and threw to receive again, while Darwin ran to confine the two center-backs to his environment and the whole team benefited from their actions. two, because everyone, at the same time, seemed to know exactly what to do, when and how.
The biggest challenge was still the defensive line: even when Nuno Tavares had already joined Grimaldo to experience extreme air, everyone behaved in homogeneous reactions, the footrests towards the correct places according to the ball, knowing when to go out or pressing. , or contain, or close the space. Benfica won because they started knowing, and then executing, how they wanted to play without the ball.
Initially shortened the field to end the field wide open to handle the ball. And so he started at five points that already have the advantage at the top of the championship, leaving Vila do Conde with a bit of a shortage, however: André Almeida was injured, still in the first half.
