SL Benfica faced CD Tondela at home and struggled to create chances against a very compactly playing Tondela, who played a 4-4-2 formation. Tondela did very well to defend disciplined and to sometimes make a move on the counter, without really getting dangerous in front of goal apart from a nice move by Richard. SL Benfica played in a 4-2-3-1 formation which changed to a 3-4-3 in possession with Julian Weigl dropping deep.
Ratings
- A1 – Very good, could play higher
- A2 – Strong potential to play higher
- B1 – Good, strong player at level
- B2 – Potential to be strong player at level
- C – Average for the level, rewatch
- D – Below average in this match
Rúben Dias
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Age: 23
- Date of birth: 14/05/1997
- Current club: SL Benfica
- Career: Benfica (Y)
- Position: central defender
- Preferred foot: right
Rúben Dias played as a right central defender and once again showed that he is a very dominant defender. He won almost every duel with Fonseca because he closed him down very quickly and has the physical ability to push him off the ball without giving away a foul. Through the air, the Portuguese defender seems unstoppable and he nearly managed to score a header. On the ball, he sometimes advanced into the midfield third but occasionally did not really know what to do with the ball and delivered a mediocre cross in these situations. However, he is very comfortable on the ball and able to play line breaking passes well, despite the fact that Tondela played compact and that there sometimes was not too much space.
Rating: A1
Ready to move to a top 5 league.
Alejandro Grimaldo
- Nationality: Spanish
- Age: 24
- Date of birth: 20/09/1995
- Current club: SL Benfica
- Career: Valencia youth, Barcelona youth, Barcelona B
- Position: left-back
- Secondary Position: left-midfielder, left-winger & central midfielder
- Preferred foot: left
Alejandro Grimaldo played as a left-back and played in a very attacking role in this match. In possession, there were two options. He either moved into the halfspaces to play as a left central midfielder or he stayed close to the sideline to make a run in behind or to drop deeper to support the build-up. This variation in his play did not get Tondela in too much trouble, even though Grimaldo showed that he can make some good runs in behind to get into space, which nearly got him into scoring position at once. Also, he showed great creativity on the ball, creating several chances for his teammates.
However, Grimaldo sporadically had a mediocre touch and his crossing in this match was very average. The crosses were far from accurate and was often played too far which led to a throw-in for Tondela. In the defensive area, I did not really like the performance of Grimaldo as his body position in the 1v1 with Murillo was not optimal as he left open both the outside and the inside while his feet were faced towards the byline. This means that he needs to turn first when Murillo cut inside which led to Murillo getting past Grimaldo with ease, occasionally.
Rating: A1
He could play in the top 5 leagues but he definitely needs to play in an attacking minded team.