THE GREATEST OF ALL TIME
chapter-372

Thursday, April 24, 2014.

Estádio da Luz, SL. Benfica's Home Ground, Lisbon, Portugal.

Time: 9:00 PM.

The cheers hit a crescendo as players of both teams marched onto the pitch, ready to commence their long-awaited Europa League semi-final battle. The Benfica players were in their red and white home colors, while the Rosenborg squad had donned their all-black away jersey. They all looked dapper as they lined up in front of the tunnel before going through the customary handshake ceremony.

The proceedings moved forward quite fast, and in only a few minutes, the players started taking up their positions on the pitch. And when the clock hand was pointing to the 9:05 PM mark, the referee had already conducted the coin toss. He positioned himself close to the center circle and glanced at his watch as a rare wave of silence swept through the stands of the Estádio da Luz.

*FWEEEEEEE*

The next moment, the kick-off whistle echoed, and the fans became wild and frantic as they chanted the names of their respective teams at the top of their lungs. Soon, the voices of the more than 55,000 people in the stands of the Estádio da Luz blended into a chaotic thunderous symphony that shook the entire stadium. Over the next few seconds, it was as if the stadium was experiencing a mild earthquake due to the sheer magnitude of the noise.

On the pitch: the game was already underway, and it was Benfica, the home side, with the ball. The players in red and white had arrayed themselves into a 4-2-3-1 formation that revealed their intent to defend. They utilized a tedious style of play, whereby the defenders and defensive midfielders passed the ball unhurriedly in the backfield, from one end of the pitch to the other, without advancing to attack. It was as if they were daring the Rosenborg players to step forward into their defensive third to win the ball from them if they could.

The Rosenborg players seemed to grow impatient after not seeing much of the ball during the first ten minutes. They soon broke out of their ultra-defensive 4-5-1 shape and streamed forward with the intent to high-press and quickly win the ball from the 'unmotivated' Benfica players.

But just as the Rosenborg players were beginning to high-press, a swift change occurred on the pitch. Ezequiel Garay, the Benfica center-back who had the ball at the moment, unleashed a superb long pass to the other end of the pitch before any opponents could close him down. His vision was on point, and he managed to pick out Miralem Sulejmani, Benfica's left-winger.

Miralem Sulejmani controlled the ball close to the touchline on the left flank. He then pivoted around to escape the harassment of Karl Toko Ekambi before exploding with speed towards the other side of the pitch. Before any other opponent could close him down, he unleashed a curling cross towards the edge of the box from around the border of the final third.

Óscar Cardozo, the Benfica center forward, leaped high to meet the incoming cross from around the arc of the eighteen-yard box. He shrugged off Tore Reginiussen in a battle of aerial superiority and perfectly connected with the cross from his teammate. He chested the ball to the ground and then squared a pass to Rodrigo Moreno Machado, Benfica's right-winger.

Rodrigo controlled the ball mid-sprint at the right edge of the box. Without losing composure, he dashed into Rosenborg's box like the wind before expertly looping the ball over the keeper to score Benfica's first goal during the 12th minute.

"Oh, my goodness me!" The commentator's voice reverberated across the stadium as Rodrigo sprinted towards the corner flag to celebrate. "Benfica has caught Rosenborg napping to score the first goal in the 12th minute. All the Rosenborg players, including their playmaker - Zachary Bemba, couldn't stop the goal due to the swift change of play from defense to attack. Oh my, my! The fairy tale of the underdogs in the Europa League might end today night."

"Damn," Coach Johansen cursed as he watched the Benfica players celebrating the goal. The goal had really shocked and shaken him to the core as it had come out of the blue. He was not in the best of moods since his team was already a goal down even before his players could get used to the away atmosphere in Lisbon and settle down in the game. The situation was really dire.

"How do we get back into the game?"

Coach Johansen's thoughts were all over the place. He had a feeling that the game that evening would be a tricky one, especially if he didn't come up with a way to boost the morale of his players. He even feared that his team might concede more goals before halftime if his players remained panicky and unsettled on the pitch. So, he had to take action immediately to prevent the game situation from turning much worse.

"Guys!" He shouted at the top of his voice as he walked towards the touchline. "Don't let the goal bring you down. We still have more than 85 minutes of game time remaining. As long as we utilize the time well and stick to our game plan, we'll manage to score before the final whistle. So, please don't lose your confidence and morale."

"Zachary!" Coach Johansen continued. "Their three central midfielders have already created a defensive zone around you in midfield. You have to start making runs into or through the wings to escape their net. Otherwise, your teammates won't be able to evade their blockade and pass to you. Nicki! We need more energy from you on the striking line. Try to apply more pressure on those center backs and prevent them from making easy passes in the backfield..."

The coach continued hollering out instructions at the pace of a machine gun for roughly a minute. His objective was to ensure that his team regained both morale and confidence before the restart of the game.

The game restarted after the goal celebrations, and team Benfica played more defensively, without launching any attack during the following ten minutes. They seemed satisfied with the one goal and exerted more effort to solidify their ultra-defensive tactics. They obviously wanted to snuff out even the remotest of possibilities of Rosenborg scoring a goal.

"This match is tricky," Zachary thought as he analyzed Benfica's strategy after the ball had moved out of play for a throw-in. "We might not be able to use counterattacking football in this game since the opponents are turtling up in defense. Truly problematic!"

Zachary's frown deepened. Before the game, he'd learned from the coaches that Benfica was a team that often utilized high-intensity attacking football to dominate their opponents. The Portuguese side usually employed a 4-1-3-2 formation to overwhelm the opposing teams with a never-ending stream of attacks.

But contrary to Zachary's and everyone else's expectations, the Portuguese giants had totally altered their football philosophy to 'park the bus' with a defensive 4-2-3-1 formation. Their ultra-defensive gameplan had caught Rosenborg off guard and rendered Coach Johansen's counterattacking tactics useless. As a result, Rosenborg had to revise its game strategy since there wasn't a way to counterattack a team that only focused on defending and not conceding a goal.

*FWEEEEEEE*

The referee blew the whistle and motioned for team Benfica to take their throw-in. Maximiliano Pereira, the right-back, immediately raced forward before planting his feet on the touchline and throwing the ball towards Enzo Pérez, one of Benfica's two defensive midfielders.

Enzo Pérez escaped from Takumi Minamino, his marker, and raced forward to meet the ball close to the center circle. He brought it under control before turning around and threading a pass to Rúben Amorim, his counterpart in defensive midfield.

Zachary immediately rushed forward like a predator on the hunt on seeing Rúben Amorim about to control the ball. He closed in on the defensive midfielder with all the speed he could muster before sliding in to tackle the ball. He was already looking forward to winning possession back for Rosenborg.