Category Archives: Benfica
Ferdinand will not play against Benfica
RIO
Manchester United have announced that Rio Ferdinand will not be travelling with the squad for the club’s Champions League curtain raiser against Benfica.
Manchester United squad: De Gea, Lindegaard; Evans, Evra, Fabio, Jones, Smalling; Anderson, Carrick, Fletcher, Giggs, Nani, Park, Valencia, Young; Berbatov, Hernandez, Owen, Rooney.
UEFA Champions League Group Stage Draw
The Full Groups list
Uefe revealed that Fenerbahce has ben replaced by the team that finished 2nd in the Turkish league, Trabzonspor.
The draw for the UEFA Champions league group stage has just been concluded.
Manchester City were in pot 3 and were almost certain to be in the toughest group.
And they were; Group A for me is the group of death with Bayern, Villareal, Man city and Napoli.
Manchester United were handed the easiest group with themselves, Benfica, Basel and Otelul.
Barcelona were also drawn with Milan which should be a great encounter but those 2 should qualify easily.
The full groups can be viewed in the picture above.
Lionel Messi has won the Best Player in Europe 2011.
Benfica v Arsenal Preview
Robin and Gervinho have linked up well in pre-season.
Benfica v Arsenal
Saturday 6th August
7.45pm (UK time),
Estádio da Luz,
Friendly,
Arsenal’s Transfer Market
Its been a busy and troubled transfer marker for Arsenal, with Arsene trying to hold on to key players such as Cesc and Nasri but also trying to sign a couple of signings, but apart from transfer speculation, there isn’t much going on officialy.
Gervinho and Carl Jenkinson have signed, Gael Clichy and Denilson have left the club, the later on loan, whilst Nicklas Bendtner, Manuel Almunia and Emmanuel Eboue are in talks with other clubs, but not much else.
Following a disappointing Emirates cup, Arsenal are looking to win this to keep hopes high for a title this season.
Benfica signings looking to impress
After losing David Luiz and Ramires to Chelsea in the last year, the club continued to move on key players in pre-season. The Lisbon giants gained £26m from Real Madrid for star left-back Fabio Coentrao, Nuno Gomes joined Braga on a free after 9 years at the club and keeper Roberto joined Zaragoza for £7.4m. But the club have made several signings too. Former Chelsea midfielder Nemanja Matić has joined the club, highly-rated Belgium midfielder Axel Witsel has signed from Liege for £5.6m, Barcelona B striker Nolito has also signed for the club whilst world cup winner Joan Capdevila joined on a free from Villarreal. Possibly the most important signing for Jorge Jesus’ side however will be Ezequiel Garay, the Argentinian defender who has signed from Real Madrid. In total, Benfica have signed 16 new faces this summer, whilst 12 players have returned from loan periods.
Team news
Arsenal:
Koscielny, Walcott, Diaby, Wilshere, Nasri and Gibbs are all injured and have been left behind whilst Fabregas is not yet matchfit. Bendtner, Eboue and Almunia are in talks with other clubs.Miquel and Lansbury have been included in the traveling squad.
Possible starting XI:
Jorge Jesus has plenty of options to select from in a huge squad. The following line-up is close to the one that was fielded against Trabzonspor in the third qualifying round of the Champions League last week.
Possible Starting XI
Prediction Its a tough game against a good side, but its possible to win. Ofcourse this is just a friendly but i expect Arsenal to win this and gain some much needed match fitness ahead of a tough start to the season
I hope to see a clean sheet and some confident defended, but its Arsenal so…
Full time score : Benfica 1 – 3 Arsenal
