Benfica open season with embarassing loss to Academica

Benfica last seasons defending league champs opened the season at home in a most embarassing way losing to ten man Academica to open their season. Academica was all business in this encounter as they opened the scoring when Miguel Fidalgo headed a ball past Roberto at the 26th minute mark. The second half saw Academica's Addy suffer a red card five minutes into the half and substitute Franco Jara made the visitors pay twelve minutes later when he converted a Fabio Coentrao cross with a sliding kick into the Academica net. Benfica then pressed but was unable to get the ball past Peiser. Then the unimaginable happened when a Laionel chip shot went out of the reach of the Benfica keeper and the Briosa steal three points from the defending champs.
Benfica suffer their first regular season home loss since April 11, 2009 which humorously was also to Academica. The Eagles look like a team in need of someone to step up in the midfield as in the past few games they have failed to replace the creativity of Angel Di Maria and Ramires.