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Well Porto won 2-0 but still showed they lack a full understanding of the system the coach wants them to play. Positive notes for Quaresma and Brahimi. Benfica played a Pacos de Ferreria who played quite well. Benfica did not play too well but still managed to win 2-0. Its important to win when you don't play well. Luisao was dominant and Gaitan was magical. Sporting lost points as expected. They are a mediocre bunch and nothing more than poor results should be expected of them.
NEW SIGNINGS:
Sporting signed Nani who is definitely a credible player upfront. They lose Rojo which means they now have no credible defenders save and except for Cedric. Cedric is also hurt now. As good as Nani is I don't consider him good enough to get a starting role if he were to play on Porto or Benfica but he will surely start at Sporting. What does it change ? Not much. Sporting will improve their attack but will suffer many more goals with the loss of Rojo who was the heart and soul of their defence. All the move will do for Sporting is sell them a few more tickets as fans will want to watch Nani play.
Julio Cesar - a goalie with a storied career, it remains unknown if he will play at the calibre he did at Inter Milan. I don't envision him walking into the starting role though. Artur, as much as I don't like him, has had two consecutive shutouts in official games and stopped 4 penalty shots in those two games. Given his history with the club and "mistica"related attributes he will continue to start until he messes up. Essentially Julio Cesar is a warning to Artur to step his game up or he will be benched. In that sense alone it is a positive signing. Should Cesar end up getting opportunities to play I see no reason to believe he will play any worse than he did at the World Cup -- where he performed brilliantly. He was the second reason (after the referee in the Croatia game) that Brazil made it out of the first round. Didn't cost Benfica a penny in transfer fees either which is positive.
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