Match Previews

Team coming from three disappointing results... Home factor could be decisive to make a comeback... Luisão (k) still out with a knee injury... Miccoli (k) likely to be fit following a knock on his toe... Katsouranis (r) to play as centre-back?... Benfica have so many reasons to be worried. They are losing their tempo following many consecutive matches and the players seem very tired at the moment. The Eagles were defeated by Espanyol in the first leg (3-2) but the two away goals scored by Nuno Gomes (r) and Simão (k) hide a disappointing start on that match. After this defeat, which already followed a 1-1 home draw against Porto, Benfica conceded a very disappointing draw last Monday at Beira-Mar (2-2). The league title is now more difficult to reach (3 points behind Porto) and this is a truly decisive game to see about their future in the UEFA Cup - maybe it's the UEFA Cup that might save a bland season so they are all focused on Espanyol right now. Nevertheless, the players seem very tired and they are now under a higher pressure. Goalkeeper Quim (r) is quite intranquil, fullbacks Nélson (r) and Leo (r) are not performing well and Anderson (r) is failing a lot in the centre-back, where the young David Luiz (sp), despite showing many excellent defensive skills, is still imature sometimes. In the first leg match at Montjuic, Katsouranis (r) was suspended but now he's available again. He will feature the starting eleven but since Anderson is performing so badly there's the doubt if the Greek will play as centre-back together with David Luiz - Katsouranis already played as centre-back this season, at Aves. This way, Karagounis (sp) and Rui Costa (r) would play together with anchor Petit (r) and attacking midfielder Simão (k). The two forwards will be Nuno Gomes (r) and Miccoli (k), who had a off-day at Aveiro last Monday. Derlei (sp) has been playing some awful performances (his technique seems absolutely disastrous). The energic Angolan forward Mantorras (sp) proved against Porto and Beira-Mar that he can be an interesting sub player but he really has to play some more minutes. It will be coach Fernando Santos's 70th match in European competitions.