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 Friday 22nd July 2005, Pre Season Friendly, Municipal Stadium, Albufeira, Portugal, Kick-Off 9:15pm
Benfica: Moreira, Alex, Anderson, Ricardo Rocha (Alcides 78) , Leo (Dos Santos HT), Geovanni (Carlitos 69), Beto, Petit, Helio Roque, Nuno Gomes (Mantorras 69), Simao (Tiago Gomes 78). Sub not used: Quim Albion: Kirkland, Watson, Gaardsoe, Clement, Robinson, Gera (Greening 67), Wallwork, Carter (Kanu 67), Chaplow (Inamoto 67), Horsfield, Campbell (Earnshaw 81). Subs not used: Kuszczak (gk), Moore, Scimeca, Albrechtsen, Johnson, Dyer
Referee:
Nuno Almeida (Algarve)
Assistant Referees: Pais Antonio, Carlos Nilha Half-Time: Benfica 2-0 Albion Attendance: 4,000 approx Conditions: Very warm clear night MATCH REPORT BY: Mark Thomas Although defeat against the Portuguese champions was somewhat expected the manner of this latest pre-season defeat was not. Just as in the games with MK Dons and Crewe, Albion could only be described as poor. It didn’t take long for Benfica to take the lead, Chris Kirkland had already come to Albion’s rescue once but on six minutes he was helpless to prevent Geovanni heading in a far post corner. With Campbell and Horsfield completely ineffective up front and with the midfield totally lacking in ideas Albion never looked like getting back on level terms, indeed the only surprise was it took the Portuguese side so long to extend their lead, the impressive Geovanni finally notching their second in the 26th minute. Albion’s first real effort on target didn’t arrive until 41 minutes were on the clock, Darren Carter having a 20 yard free-kick well saved by Moreira in the Benfica goal. Seconds later Carter actually had the ball in the back of the net only for the goal to be disallowed, Horsfield being ruled offside earlier in the move. Surprisingly Albion made no changes at half-time and infact started the second period slightly better although 15 minutes into the half Benfica finished the game off with a well worked third goal after Carter and Robinson had combined to give away possession. Further goals followed on 65 and 66 minutes. With Albion facing more humiliation boss Robson finally decided to change things around, Greening, Kanu and Inamoto all coming on. Only Inamoto really showed anything, once again perhaps suggesting that he is worthy of a first team place when the season kicks off in three weeks time. Although friendlies are said to be meaningless, anyone that has watched Albion during pre-season can’t help but be worried at the performances that have been put in. Whilst the performance against Benfica can be understood due to the quality of the opposition the performances against MK Dons and Crewe could not. The club are desperately crying out for a central defender, a creative midfielder and a couple of strikers. With the season just three weeks away hopefully the wheels are in motion to bring new players into the club, if not we will struggle. MAN OF THE MATCH: Junichi Inamoto
PLAYER RATINGS OUT OF TEN
Sky Sports:
West
Bromwich Albion suffered their third straight pre-season loss after going
down 5-0 to Portuguese champions Benfica in the Algarve. Bryan Robson
fielded his first choice line-up, but they were way off the pace as they
went down without much of a struggle.
Brazilian
Geovanni was the star of the show as he grabbed a well-taken hat-trick. He
opened the scoring after just six minutes and doubled his and Benfica's
tally just 20 minutes later.
Into the
second period and Benfica fired home three goals in just six minutes as
they steamrolled The Baggies. Helio Roque scored just before the hour,
after which Geovanni sealed his treble and Simao Sabrosa fired home. Teamtalk: West
Brom boss Bryan Robson knows his side still have plenty to work on ahead
of the new Premiership campaign after they were ripped apart in a 5-0
pre-season drubbing against Benfica.
Bryan Robson: "These two games have been a great experience for the players. Sevilla are in the UEFA Cup while Benfica are in the Champions League, so we've played two real good quality teams - and the players will have benefited from that. Sometimes, after playing weaker teams, you can get carried away thinking you're better than what you are. If we'd played a couple of lesser teams and had good victories, you can become blinkered and start to think there are certain things you don't need to work on. But if you play two quality sides like we have, we now know we've got to sharpen up and have a good structured plan to play to. That's the way we get our results." "The Benfica game was a lesson for us. They are a very good side and have some top international players. That's why they won the Portuguese league last season. The way they rotated their system and passed the ball was outstanding. Some of their finishing was also top quality. The game showed we've got to be really well organised and play to a game plan when we play against the best teams.” "I sort of allowed the players to play in their own way last night because it's about fitness at this stage and getting their touch back. But it's given us a reality check that we're not good enough to compete with the best teams playing that way. We've got to be organised, with the players playing within a structure. When we did well towards the end of last season to escape relegation, we played quite a physical type game. In a friendly like this, I don't want our boys getting caught up in a real physical game because you don't want injuries, or to injure the opposition players. You want to try and play a good game of football. That's what we tried to do. But, to a certain degree, we haven't got as good individual players as Benfica and that's why we ended up getting beat in the way we did. It was a great learning curve for some of our players who haven't played against the calibre of foreign teams like Benfica before." "The only good thing to come out of the game was that we didn't get any injuries. We've now got to get back to basics against Cardiff and Madrid to prepare for the start of the season. Nobody likes to get beat in the manner we did and the players are disappointed because they wanted to do better. But they do look at things realistically and know they were playing against a very good side. There's certainly no great cause for concern because I can see good parts to our game. The work-rate of the players is there. I know what their strengths are. But now that the fitness levels are near enough there, what we've got to do is organise and structure the way we're going to play against Manchester City. That's what we'll be doing in our next two games." Source: wba.co.uk |
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