Benfica 2-0 Porto: good midfield pressure and quick attacking from the home side

Betting Statistics | Article posted on January 18th, 2025

The starting line-ups

Benfica went top of the league with a controlled, confident victory at the Estadio da Luz.
Jorge Jesus played his usual outfield players, although in goal Artur Moraes was unavailable so back-up Jan Oblak played instead. This was Nemanja Matic's final game before his return to Chelsea.
Paolo Fonseca played Carlos Eduardo at the head of his midfield trio, with Lucho Gonzalez deeper, and Josue and Steven Defour on the bench. Nicolas Otamendi was at centre-back, rather than Maicon.
Benfica were clearly the better side throughout this contest, more organised without the ball and more purposeful in possession.
Formations
This clash has usually been a battle between two separate systems – Benfica using a 4-2-3-1 or a diamond, with Porto in their trusty 4-3-3. However, Fonseca has changed the structure of the Porto side this season, changing them to more of a standard 4-2-3-1. Therefore, the simple formations were extremely similar, and the tactical battle not as interesting as usual in this fixture.
There were slight differences in how the two sides operated, though – Benfica's central attacker was Rodrigo, who tried to sprint forward and link up with Lima on the break, whereas Porto had Carlos Eduardo, more of a classic number ten who drifted between the lines, generally to the right.
Porto attacks
Porto struggled to produce many dangerous attacks, and a constant feeling throughout the game was that their four attacking players all seemed to be playing as individuals – there were very few combinations between them in the final third. This was partly the fault of Eduardo, who was effectively marked out of the game by Matic – he failed to provide much inspiration from central positions.
His only dangerous moments came when he drifted towards the right to link up with the winger on that side – Lica and Silvestre Varela switched flanks regularly – but otherwise, Porto didn't have the incision to break down the hosts. Jackson Martinez was quiet, playing against a high line and centre-backs that marked him relentlessly when he came towards the ball – there was no-one playing through-balls, the Colombian's hold-up and link-up play struggled to allow teammates up the pitch. Eduardo never looked to break beyond him, in stark contrast to the role played by Rodrigo at the other end.
Benfica pressure
The most impressive thing about Benfica was their organisation without the ball. Although they pressed high up in the opening stages, their regular approach was to use an extremely compact 'medium block' without the ball – which is to say they kept a high-ish line, but invited the opposition defence to play the ball into midfield, where they then pounced and broke quickly.
This required great discipline from the whole side. Rodrigo pressed the centre-backs when

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