So it turns out Benfica are a better than that Otelul Galati. Who knew? 69% possession away from home and 16 shots to their opponents’ 7 are good indicators of dominance, and it’s a little weird that the Portuguese only managed a 1-0 win, but this group probably won’t come down to goal differential and Benfica will be happy to have emerged with all three points against their Romanian opponents.
Otelul Galati Vs. Benfica, 2011 UEFA Champions League: Benfica Cruise To Win Bucharest
The goal come late in the first half when Bruno Cesar was sent through by Nicolas Gaitan to slip the ball past Branko Grahovac, and Benfica's lead rarely looked threatened - a pair of late, harmless long-range efforts were about as close as Otelul got to scoring aside from one heart-stopping second-half moment where it looked as though a rebound was going to be put in via Livia Antal only for Artur to come up huge in sending the shot behind for a corner. All in all, though, it was a comfortable performance, and Benfica have put themselves in pretty good position. That said, they've yet to play Basel, who despite indifferent performances from Manchester United, are probably their main competitors for second place. There's still all to play for in Group C.
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