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#2 Profligate finishing costs Benfica
Benfica manager Jorge Jesus brilliantly summarized the game, when he said "Sevilla started off better than Benfica, but, as the match progressed, Benfica improved, showed it was the better team, more of a team and in the second half showed its power, had a number of opportunities to score, wasn't able to and then in extra-time was the team that played more.”
Even in defeat, Jesus’ analysis of the game was spot on as Benfica spurned chance after chance in the 90 minutes before the game went into extra time.
It wasn’t just in the shootout but in normal time as well that Benfica left their shooting boots at home. Ezequiel Garay was one of the main culprits as not only did he blaze a couple of efforts over the bar, but also could not react quickly enough as Beto spilled a free-kick at his feet. To be fair though, he wasn’t alone.
Nicolás Gaitán also poked a shot just wide and Lima had, on more than occasion had his effort saved by Beto. In the end, with each missed chance, it looked more and more as though Benfica thought they won’t score and by the time extra time arrived both sides were too exhausted to even try very hard and in the penalty shootout the curse struck again and Benfica lost another European final.
