A lap of Tito and that will come from Puyol

Any analysis of soccer match at the Estádio da Luz between SL Benfica and FC Barcelona I find banal, pointless, after seeing the shocking injury Carles Puyol. So I'll start with a brief on the Blaugrana captain before you meet with the chronicle of the encounter: if there is a football god, tonight has behaved like a real son of a bitch.

The first game at home in this new edition of the UEFA Champions League has served to convince us that a little Tito Vilanova has a plan and it is developing. This club has changed the balance of your balance. With Guardiola was a team entirely horizontal, but now has more than offset the weights and has shifted to some extent of verticality not seen since the Rijkaard era.

Some might deem this as an abandonment of the horizontal and extreme order, granting the team a more anarchic tendency. But do not forget that all change takes time, especially when they should be done with tact and moderation, not with the radical demands a crisis. But Tito wheel has already set in motion: open ends, Messi and Cesc floating between the tip and the mean, Xavi Busquets sharing spaces and ceding more responsibility on the first stage of construction. These are the most significant changes that marked Vilanova and tonight they have seen even more clearly than in previous games.

After two timid approaches Lisbon, the club found the goal in the first time, five minutes. Messi and Alexis attends premieres his locker this season. The goal Barca sit well, of course, but especially the Chilean finally conceded a good game. Good news for the Blaugrana, which have recovered just days scoring contribution Cesc and Alexis, two secondary scorers much needed-not forgetting Villa, whose goal to consummate the comeback in Seville was a boost in the final phase of recovery , which is important and again feel also be.

Will have to see which way will the team with Iniesta as a starter, but playing with the ends so open and starting from the playmaker Cesc, the team tends to be more direct, more upright, and that takes you to stretch further and leave more space between lines, a reef that many teams may try to exploit, at least for the time it takes the whole team to accurately gauged. The poor condition of the center of defense also greatly affects both the forward bilge and in the fold back. Casualties of Puyol and Pique have agreed (and underline) the bad time is living Mascherano, repeatedly misplaced. With Song with much homework to do yet, the couple presumably will be central Madrid on Sunday in the Classic could do white water against potential.

If in the second half, Benfica took the field with any hope of turning the tide, the club took care to give a reality check. In less than a minute spun an attack that ended in a shot from Alexis. Lusos took such a fright that they whole body stiffened. It was seen in ten minutes, just a couple of attempts at backlash not only served to weaken further before the next attack blaugrana.'s Second goal local visitor born of fear. All defenses looked and moved towards Messi and Argentina only saw the British as Cesc arrival from behind, which made a perfect oriented control with his left leg with adjusted also shot at the near post.

Barca, with 0-2 in favor, not put to sleep playing and playing the game of bat, as he often did once, but still held a seemingly comfortable while exchanging blows. Will have to see if this is another work of Tito or a symptom of a physical stadium still in half. It may be a mixture of both points. The rest of the game did not help but be bad news after another. First and foremost the brutal Puyol injury, which the Lisbon public goodbye with applause, which honors him. After the expulsion of Busquets, for an alleged assault that was less than what he did to Alves Matic shortly after, but no less than on Saturday Medel was punished with a shower premature. Those who see arbitration as a continuum will say that it served eaten.

Best for Barcelona is that you have started the Champions League with two wins, in this second stage of his strongest rival. A promising start, not only with a view to qualifying for the knockout stages, but also for a possible deal of forces in the last few games of the group stage. The trouble is that he has left his captain down the road, a loss that has to digest well mental strength to deal with Sunday's game against Real Madrid, and painted an opportunity to strike a blow in the league in also could lose more than three points against their archrival.