Four days away from hosting Lyon, in the ‘quarters’ of the women’s Champions League, the Eagles are not avoiding equality with Damaiense; eagles faced disadvantage and expulsion, still rescuing a point
Just four days before hosting Lyon, in a historic clash for the quarter-finals of the women’s Champions League, Benfica…disappointed, having failed to go beyond a draw at Damaia (1-1) which they still needed to rescue in adverse situation in the face of the attention of the president of the reds, Rui Costa, who was present on the bench and took the opportunity to visit the location where he began practicing sports – the Conductor he played futsal at Damaia Ginásio, very close to the place where the match took place.
Firstly, due to the difficult weather conditions of an afternoon that featured, in several periods of the game, heavy rain and dense fog which, in addition to the gallantry of their opponent, Damaiense, complicated the task, putting themselves in advantage in the 34th minute. with an indefensible shot from outside the area by her captain, Beatriz Cameirão, who on her CV boasts two national championships, two League Cups and a Portuguese Cup playing for…Benfica, where she spent four seasons.
The Eagle, in turn, appeared amorphous, with no record of relevant opportunities to score in the first half and its attitude changed for the (much) better after the break. Even so, Filipa Patão’s men faced yet another adversity, more precisely in the 68th minute, when Ana Seiça, already on the ground, stopped Lidiane with a tackle that referee Cátia Duarte first punished with a yellow card, but after a warning from VAR the decision passed to direct red card sampling and Benfica was reduced to ten units.
The numerical inferiority indicated even greater problems for Benfica, but the reaction to the difficulties was instantaneous and less than two minutes later Jéssica Silva took a wide cross from the left for Kika Nazareth’s header to equalize in the 70th minute. The Portuguese international increased her distance from the competition in the championship’s top scorers table – 13 goals in 13 games played – and even came close to scoring twice and turning the corner, but she was not happy and still caused a small scare.
In the 72nd minute, Kika, who scored his 20th goal of the season, requested assistance with complaints in his right foot after poor support on the synthetic mat that received the match, but recovered fully and completed the 90 minutes. However, not in time to be able to help the Reds score again and avoid losing points, even though they maintain a comfortable advantage of eight points over Sporting, second placed who, this Saturday, host Clube Albergaria and will be able to reduce distances to the top of the table.
