Benfica beat Tottenham 3-1 in Europa 1st leg,just days after Chelsea trashed them 4-0

The pressure on Tim Sherwood and Tottenham cranked up a gear as
their hopes of reaching the Europa League quarterfinals were made
remote by Benfica’s comprehensive 3-1 victory in North London.
Sherwood publicly criticised his players after Saturday’s
embarrassing 4-0 defeat to rivals Chelsea, which midfielder Sandro
revealed led to a furious two-hour crisis meeting at Stamford
Bridge.
However, there was to be no morale-boosting response in this last-16
tie against Benfica, who are now overwhelming favourites to
progress ahead of next week’s second leg.
Bolton loanee Rodrigo opened the scoring, slotting home after a
tremendous Ruben Amorim ball just before the half-hour mark.
Emmanuel Adebayor uncharacteristically dragged wide in the second
half when well placed, and the missed chance allowed the visitors to
take control as woeful defending allowed Luisao to divert home,
before Christian Eriksen reduced the deficit with a wonderful free-
kick.
However, Spurs never looked likely saving their 11-match unbeaten
European record at White Hart Lane as Luisao smashed home his
second of the night, with Sherwood and counterpart Jorge Jesus
refusing to shake hands at the final whistle.
Second-half substitute Mario Gomez struck a 79th-minute equaliser
to put Fiorentina in the driving seat of their last-16 clash with
Juventus following a 1-1 draw.
Gomez, who came off the bench in the 67th minute, cancelled out
Arturo Vidal’s third-minute opener in Thursday’s first leg in Turin.
Juve had plenty of chances to double their lead and were unlucky not
to go into the interval 2-0 up after Vidal’s header struck the
crossbar.
Jackson Martinez scored the only goal in the 57th minute
as Porto claimed a 1-0 first-leg advantage over Napoli in their
last-16 clash in Portugal.
The Colombian striker hit a left-footed diagonal shot past Napoli
goalkeeper Pepe Reina to give his side the edge heading to Italy next
week.
Carlos Eduardo had previously beaten Reina in the opening half but
his goal had been disallowed for offside. The victory at the Dragao
stadium maintained a perfect start for new coach Luis Castro, who
replaced Paulo Fonseca last week after his promotion from the B
team and claimed a 4-1 win against Arouca in his debut.
AZ Alkmaar put themselves in the driving seat in their tie against
Anzhi Makhachkala, nicking a 1-0 lead in the opening leg in Holland.
A first-half penalty from U.S. international Aron Johansson settled
the contest in AZ’s favour and helped them erase memories of a 5-0
thrashing by the Russians when the two sides met in Alkmaar in last
season’s Europa League play-offs.
Valencia virtually assured themselves of a quarterfinal place after a
remarkable 3-0 win at Ludogrets.
The Spaniards went 1-0 up through Antonio Barragan after five
minutes but looked in trouble when Seydou Keita was sent off in the
25th and gave away a penalty in the process. Diego Alves kept out
Roman Bezjak’s spot-kick, though, and the visitors went on to add
more goals through Federico Cartabia and Philippe Senderos.
Stunned Ludogrets then had a man of their own sent off, Juninho
Quixada, to cap a miserable night.
Real Betis stunned city rivals Sevilla with a 2-0 win despite being
outplayed for much of the first leg of their last-16 derby.
Sevilla had won their previous four games in all competitions and
were six unbeaten, and they dominated Thursday night’s game.
They somehow came away facing an imposing second-leg test next
week, though, after Leo Baptistao’s first-half header and Salva
Sevilla’s well-taken second gave Betis victory.
Lyon took a huge step towards the quarterfinals as they came from
behind to claim a 4-1 win over Viktoria Plzen.
Tomas Horava took advantage of some poor defending from the Ligue
1 side in the opening minutes to claim an early lead before the score
was levelled by Gueida Fofana 10 minutes later.
Alexandre Lacazette gave Lyon the lead early in the second half
before Arnold Mvuemba claimed a valuable goal ahead of the trip to
the Czech Republic for the second leg with Fofana’s second adding
gloss to the win.
Basel ended Salzburg’s 14-game winning streak in all competitions as
they played out a 0-0 draw in their first-leg tie at St Jakob Park.
Salzburg last tasted defeat against Rapid Vienna on November 24
and while they remain unbeaten in the competition, they were unable
to take an advantage back to Austria for the second leg of the tie.
I think with this there current form Arsenal will enjoy the weekend ……

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