Mario Joao
Despite spending 7 years with Benfica between 1955-62, Mario Joao only featured 89 times for the club yet he appeared in both winning European Cup finals and also won 2 league titles and 2 Portuguese Cups.
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FEBRUARY
Taca de Portugal Semi-Final 1st Leg
Lineup - Guerin, Silva, Cortes, Baidoo, Paredes,
Fabricio*, Ndongo, Bruno Eduardo (Gustavo), Mansilla (Santos), Erakovic, Klump (Lobo)
Not bad. I would have preferred a bigger winning margin so I could play my backups in the 2nd leg. I still might but we shall see.
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Lineup - Guerin, Silva (Mina), Cortes, Baidoo (Gomes), Paredes, Fabricio, Ndongo, Bruno Eduardo (Gustavo), Covilha, Osvaldo,
Klump*
In the first 8 league games this season Klump had 3 goals. He has now scored 20 in his last 11!!!!
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Taca de Portugal Semi-Final 2nd Leg
Lineup - Guerin, Silva,
Mina*, Baidoo, Paredes, Fabricio (Bubenik), Ndongo, Bruno Eduardo, Covilha (Santos), Erakovic (Silva), Lobo
Job done. Lobo scored the only goal of the game to secure our place in the final. Elvis Silva made his debut here off the bench and became the clubs youngest ever player in the process.
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Lineup - Guerin, Silva, Cortes, Baidoo, Paredes (Mina), Fabricio (Bubenik), Ndongo, Bruno Eduardo, Covilha (Santos), Osvaldo,
Klump*
What a comeback this is!!!!
For 54min we were terrible and were deservedly 2-0 down but 2 goals in 2min from Klump and Osvaldo all of a sudden had us level but then we fell behind again. Thankfully Osvaldo levelled again and Klump nudged us ahead late on while Ndongo scored with a header in stoppage time to ease any nerves.
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UEFA Champions League 1st Round 1st Leg
Lineup - Guerin, Silva (Mina), Cortes, Baidoo, Paredes, Fabricio (Mansilla), Ndongo,
Bruno Eduardo*, Covilha, Osvaldo (Erakovic), Klump
GET IN THERE!!!!!!!!!
We put in a fantastic performance and really should have scored a few more such was our dominance. Klump and Bruno Eduardo got the goals but unfortunately they scored with one of their few attacks. That away goal conceded could prove to be really costly but if we remain unbeaten after the 2nd leg we will be through lol.
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Lineup - Guerin, Silva, Mina (Gomes), Baidoo (Vakula), Paredes, Bubenik, Ndongo, Bruno Eduardo,
Mansilla*, Osvaldo (Erakovic), Klump
Thiago Mansilla came into the side here and scored twice to help us to victory. He has been quite unheralded so far this season but now has 13 goals for the campaign. My first choice AMC - Covilha - has 3 lol.
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Lineup - Guerin, Silva, Cortes, Mina, Paredes, Fabricio, Ndongo (Bubenik), Bruno Eduardo,
Covilha*, Osvaldo (Erakovic), Klump (Lobo)
Pacos de Ferreira are rock bottom and we piled on the misery here with a 3-1 victory. Fabricio also missed a last minute penalty and we had a goal disallowed too!
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Lineup - Guerin, Silva, Cortes, Baidoo, Paredes (Vakula), Bubenik,
Bruno Eduardo*, Mansilla (Santos), Osvaldo (Erakovic), Klump
Vizela have been the surprise package this season as they came into the game in 3rd place but we swept them aside here.
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SUMMARY
We had yet another perfect month here with a 100% record. In the league we just keep on winning (as we do in the cups lol) and our lead at the top is 12pts and we have a game in hand! We are playing some fine football but as I have been saying - that is relatively easy to do in our domestic fixtures due to the lack of quality.
You cant say that about the Champions League however and we pulled up the trees to defeat them 2-1 at home. It was a terrific performance where if we had scored 4 or even 5 nobody would have been surprised. As it was it was a narrow victory and they have the away goal so that is a big worry.
We are still unbeaten this season though!!!
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PLAYER OF THE MONTH
BRUNO EDUARDO
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LIGA NOS