The UEFA Champions League is here again. The World 's most prestigious club competition (arguably) is back on our TV screens. This year's group stage draw pitched Manchester United against Benfica for the third time in seven campaigns. The red army from Manchester will not forget in a hurry how the 'encarnados' put paid to their ambitions of reaching the knock out stages of the competition six seasons ago(05-06) when Geovanni dieberson mauricio gomez, simply known as 'geovanni' and Giberto galdino dos santos also known as 'beto' scored two first half goals to cancel out paul scholes' 6th minute opener. That season marked the first time that Fergie had failed to qualify for the knock out stages in as long as I can remember.
Although the Manchester giants got their revenge when they were drawn against each other in the next CL competition (06-07)..........(beat the Portuguese giants home and away 3-1,1-0), the pain has not really gone away. This season marks another chance to make amends for that grueling night in Lisbon.
Nothing will satisfy Sir Alex more than an impressive display capped by a very comfortable victory to kickstart the 11-12 UCL season. But, it is going to be far from easy. Looking at the 'aguias'(nickname for Benfica), you will agree with me that they have a wonderful and immensely talented squad............One better than the aging one of six years ago. The Scottish gaffer of Man Utd knows quite alright that this will definitely be far from a stroll in the park.
Jorge Jesus possesses a team capable of inflicting harm on any clubside in the world, including Barcelona.... If a team was all about names and talent, Benfica have that in abundance. If it is about quality, they also have that in droves. In Pablo Aimar aka 'EL PAYASO', they have a player who on his day, is World class. From his days in the Valencia team that had the likes of Claudio Lopez, Gaizka Mendieta, Sanchez, John Carew, Ruben Baraja, Santiago Canizares, et al, he has always shone brilliantly both for club and for country. If not for injuries, ill-luck and inconsistency, the diminutive Argentine playmaker would have been mentioned in the same breath as the Stevie Gs of this world. Aimar is only one out of many at the Lisbon club these days. Despite the loss of Coentrao to Real Madrid, they have in their Arsenal, weapons that can tame any army. Experienced players like skipper Luisao, Javier Saviola (the little rabbit), Maximiliano pereira, Oscar Cardozo(103 goals in 168 apps for Benfica) and exceptional talents such as axel witsel, Manuel agudo duran(also known as NOLITO), nicolas gaitan, nemanja matic make them an even tougher nut to crack.
The champions league runners-up should be under no illusion that this is going to be an easy day out. Confidence is sky high and rightly so, as a result of their scintillating start to the season to the season where they have registered 21 goals in 5 games (18 in 4 league games--------a record), and let in only 5. The red devils have capable hands too in Ryan Giggs, Wayne Rooney (has contributed 8 out of the 18 goals and a couple of assists), Chicharito, new signings Ashley Young and Phil Jones, Portuguese player, Nani, former Porto starlet, Anderson, etc. All these however count for little when proceeding go underway at the Estadio Luz (Stadium of light) as it is a completely different scenario from the domestic form they have shown. The Lisbon club will want to prove that they have the game to beat a European superpower like United. Therefore, all hands must be on deck that ensure that there are no loose ends and no regrets. There is still a lot of skepticism regarding the goalkeeping abilities of new number one, David De Gea..... The young man has done extremely well in my opinion as it isn't easy to acclimatize to the harshness of the English Premiership and all its head hunting, error searching analysts. He will do himself more favours by shutting the hungry and skillful attacking force of Benfica.
The central defense is a worry because of the absence of Leader and Captain, Nemanja Vidic and his partner, Rio Ferdinand who was left at home with Sunday's cracker with Chelsea in mind. Teenager, Phil Jones has found it so easy to adapt to life as a Manchester United player, with his eye catching performances, especially against Bolton at the weekend. Evans is a doubt, but in Chris Smalling, United have another good replacement. But it is the Champions league and more often than not, experience says a lot in determining the outcome of games of this magnitude. Cardozo, Aimar and co will want to exploit this seeming weakness. We will see how well the young jewels can cope with this kind of pressure.
The game promises to be a cracker as of course most meetings between the two have turned out to be. For Man Utd fans, it was this same club, that Sir Bobby Charlton and co defeated in 1968 to claim its first European Cup, ten years after the Munich air disaster which claimed the lives of supreme talents of the EPL defending champions.
