I'd normally agree. But he had the tactics spot on. Would've got murdered pressing for the goals the whole 90
Bingo. I've slated Pardew for most of the season for the negative stuff but I can completely understand how we played tonight. Any Benfica goal killed the tie stone dead, going hell for leather from the off would have left too much space at the back. We clearly got the first and threw everything at them to get the second and had Benfica on the ropes. We just couldn't quite finish the job and get the second goal.
We were forced to show a bit of restraint due to being 2 goals down from the first leg, it wasn't like we started the tie at 0-0 tonight. No blame attached to Pardew tonight from me.
Generally agree. The fact they scored out the counter says a lot.