pachman40

I've counted 5 times so far this half that Cahill and Ivan have run into the 18 making the identical runs that Luiz was getting slated for when he played as CB. Its obviously a tactical instruction that the manager wants the CB's to get involved and tip the numbers in our favor. I'm just curious to hear people's observations. Very poor half so far, long wasteful balls left right and centre, and slow buildup play. Let's see what Rafa has up his sleeve at halftime.

Hilarious about Porto being made the bad guys here. I hate Porto with a passion but respect their negotiation skills. Porto is not DEMANDING a price tag. Porto has never ever stated that they want to sell Hulk. They are the ones with the leverage and they are using it. Let's say I own a house that I like, the neighbors are nice, the mortgage is paid off, and I'm happy living there. Then some schlep knocks on my door and says "I really like your house and want to buy it". I don't want to move and therefore I can ask whatever the hell I want for my house, even double or triple the market value. As the homeowner I have no obligation to be fair and I don't give a shit if I insult the buyer with my asking price. If the buyer is still interested in negotiating after the inflated price is revealed then I know I have my hooks in. It is always the schlep's choice to buy my house or move onto the next property.

Hurts is just a figure of speech. You invest emotionally into Chelsea as a fan and want what's best for the club. I don't like seeing us getting it up the ass especially from a regular offender like Pinto da Costa. In the end yes its Roman's money and its pocket change for him, so why bother discussing it? Because we care, that's why!

There's nobody else knocking at the door at the quoted prices, just yapping from the agent to create urgency. Nobody can convince me that Porto are hoping to keep him for another year, they're probably throwing up in their mouth thinking of him hanging around all grumpy and losing value with every week. They want to cash in NOW! Porto spent 13.5M euros earlier this year to acquire an additional 40% of Hulk. That values him at over 33M euros for full ownership, and Porto do not spend money like that sitting and hoping to keep that player in the squad. They obviously want to flip him for over 40M euros but are struggling to find someone to compete with Chelsea to drive the price up. Hammer them and make them choke on their greed.

Some recent posts I've made defending our league and talking up Hulk might sound hypocritical to my older posts. I haven't changed my mind, excellent player, likely to continue to dominate in the EPL, but over-priced relative to the market, Porto's president squeezing everything he can and making me sick. Fantastic signing if it happens for Chelsea and definitely will fit like a glove with our current attacking options, but it hurts to overpay.

I see your points and can't argue with most of them. I look at Braga and scratch my head wondering how they can be competitive with a much smaller budget and no-name players but they play as a team and are getting better and better. There's no doubt that a 3rd place team in Portugal is not going to be a 3rd place team in England but they are surely not fighting relegation, just like a relegation fighting team in England is not going to waltz into Portugal and claim a Champions League spot. I would be hard-pressed to make a case for the likes of the superstar laden talent in Bolton, Blackburn, Wigan, etc... to not finish bottom half of the table in Portugal. Once again, the sheer amount of internationals playing in England is expected based on the money and exposure that comes with playing in the league. Nobody "aspires" to eventually play in Portugal, but the truth is that there are very good, decent, and plain bad teams there as in any other league.

Fernando is a very good player, I'd love to have him on my team but you're exaggerating. Javi Garcia is right there with him, not gonna debate who's better cuz that's not relevant. Cardozo is far from prolific, he has good stats and is very important, but he's extremely extremely wasteful, not even remotely in the same league as Falcao Patricio is world class and will make an English team very very happy soon enough Capel is very good but you're overrating him based on a couple of months of good play, good potential but again exaggerating his current quality Gomes was and is one of my favorite players ever, but he'd barely make the top 10 for Benfica let alone the whole league...not even in the same hemisphere as Eusebio, Figo, Cristiano Ronaldo, Rui Costa, etc... Lima is a hack, someone has to score for Braga but he's not even on the bench for Porto and Benfica, thanks for coming. Anyways, I'm going way off topic, I appreciate that you have some knowledge of the league but you're clearly out of your element. Hulk is head and shoulders above everyone in the league and that hurts like hell to admit it but its the truth. Patricio, Gaitan, Nelson Oliveira, Rodrigo are all furture European superstars but right now, today, they aren't on the same level as Hulk.

How come when we discuss a player from Portugal the quality of the league becomes a primary part of the debate? And how come everyone exaggerates to make their points seem more relevant? Nobody with a brain would say Portugal's league is as good as the EPL, but people talking smack about it, bringing up international players, goal differentials, and things like that obviously don't watch the league, period. The superiority complex about the EPL is frustrating to other fans because people are so busy trumpeting how utterly fantastic their league and dismissing other leagues that they can't see the forest through the trees. Recognize that another league doesn't need to be shit upon in order to validate the quality of the EPL. Everyone knows players generally aspire to get out of the Portuguese league to play in the EPL, La Liga, Bundesliga, and sometimes the Serie A but a huge part of that desire is money and worldwide fame. The disparity in the leagues is truly overstated by some here. Sorry for the wakeup call, but Porto and Benfica would be battling nose to nose for Champions League spots in England and our next tier would be nose to nose against the Liverpools and Evertons for Europa League spots. We would be far far away from relegation battles, and to say that the West Hams of the world would be fighting for our title is simple ignorance. Being ignorant of our league is justifiable since we don't have as much coverage as others but to spout off these types of claims shows who talks for the sake of talking and who actually knows what they are talking about. Sorry about the rant but I'm sensitive about this stuff. I'm not trying to come across as combative, but its just frustrating reading some of this stuff.

This comment is wrong on so many levels. Gomes? Lima? Cardozo? Dear God there is no credibility left after reading that list. I'm sorry, but Hulk is not getting enough credit from you. When he is in the line-up playing at right wing instead of centre forward, Porto are a completely different and almost unbeatable team. The only people on that list that can have nearly the same impact to their team are Aimar and Patricio. I'm not saying Hulk is king of the world Golden Ball winner quality, but to name these guys and say Hulk is equal-ish may go down as the least truthful misleading statement I have ever heard or read in my life. Am I exaggerating? You guys decide.

Well the Benfica fan in me can't wait for the deal to be completed so he can get the fuck out of our league and give us a better shot at the title. I have no doubt in my mind he will silence the critics and become a dominant player in the EPL. I'm not going to get into the banter back and forth about him coming from a weak league, its true the Port. League is weak compared to the EPL but that doesn't mean he won't come in and kick ass so I'm disregarding that. All that being said, while I believe he will kick ass, there's no doubt in my mind that he's overvalued. The guy is not worth more than 30-35 M euros even within this market. Chelsea needs to call Porto's bluff and walk away from the table cuz there is no other team out there willing to pay more than 35M for this guy. Pinto da Costa is a masterful negotiator and sucks everything he can out of every deal but its about time someone drops a player on him. Chelsea need Hulk and we will be amazing with him in our 11 but Porto need money too. If Chelsea walks away (for now) and look at other options it will only give us more leverage. What are they gonna do? Threaten to sell him to some Russian club that would pay their demands? Nope, Hulk won't go, he wants England. Real, Barca, Manchesters, PSG, none of them are gonna pay so let's stick it to him. Worst thing that can happen is he stays in Portugal one more year to torment us Benfiquistas, but best thing that could happen is Porto cave....or he stays in Portugal all grumpy, has a bad first half of the year and we swoop in January at a cut rate price.

He has potential to be a star....but as others have said, that's not what we need right now, we already have Lukaku filling that role. In a couple of years he will be the next Benfica player after Gaitan and Witsel to be sold for 25-30 mil.

Anyways, good night boys....hope my fellow Benfica fans take a chill pill or just take off, it really is embarrassing already. Take it easy on the guests, even though they're being irrational and grumpy, we'll talk again tomorrow when everyone's settled down a bit.

Unfortunately I agree 100% about other's posts in here, I can't defend them. The majority of Chelsea fans have been classy and gracious post-game, I wish I could say the same about ours cuz our club doesn't deserve to get smeared like this.

Well we were immature, inexperienced, and undisciplined.....aside from that I don't have anything to complain about. Its unfortunate this team will get poached because given a couple more years together we'd be top drawer. Cheers!!

That's enough Bruno, we played well but shit happens, let's not act like babies....Let's go kick Sporting's ass!!!!!

Congrats to everyone here, good luck against Barca, no hard feelings about excited earlier on.... Just want to say I'm proud of Benfica, they played their hearts out, gave up a lot of chances to Chelsea but had a whole lot of quality chances themselves as well. Played really well before the penalty, had a tough stretch for a bit, lost discipline and paid for it. But we came out in the second half and gave it a proper go. Hats off to Benfica!!!! Now let's go Blues and take it to Barcelona!!!!!!!!!!!!

and fuck this....so much for class, see you guys

Fuck this

I hate diving and cheating as much as the next guy and don't condone it at all, but its not always diving and sometimes complaining is warranted. I'll call a spade and spade and admit we dive too much. Can we cut out the sardine-eating stuff, and not always assume its a dive?

You can cut and paste that post into the Barca game

Listen, I know you don't like Benfica, but complaining about diving already and going on about sardine-eating is annoying. The ref isn't falling for any dives or even some legit fouls today so don't worry about it.

Almost game time, Good luck boys! No matter what happens let's stay classy and I'll talk to you guys after the game. KTBFFH and Forca Benfica!!!!!!!!!!!!

Apparently he was a CB growing up before being changed to a centre-mid. He's filled in at CB for parts of games due to injuries or tactical changes chasing a goal where we remove a CB and he's done really well. If it was Garcia/Luisao at the back I wouldn't be too worried, but its the second half of the equation that scares the crap out of me today. Also, the CB's are a lot better with Garcia sitting in front of them supporting them. Now we have to rely on Matic who looks promising but might be ready for primetime. Its a difficult situation but what can you do.

Definitely the right idea. News in Portugal is Luisao out, Garcia/Emerson starting in the centre with Capdevilla at LB (just threw up in my mouth). This game could be a fantastic confidence booster for Torres. If Benfica are going to lose, I hope Torres gets a hat trick and goes crazy out there. The stars are aligning for him today.

Agreed, everyone knows it happens and its a tactic used everywhere, but in this particular case with Jesus running down the sidelines making a ruckus its a disgrace. No way I can condone that or formulate any reasonable response. Wish it was Porto's coach who did that so I could have a field day with it, but us Benfica fans gotta own that one.