Benfica vs. Fiorentina: Score, Grades and Reaction from 2015 ICC

Fiorentina beat Benfica 5-4 on penalties Friday night in the 2015 International Champions Cup at Rentschler Field in Hartford, Connecticut. 

The defining moment of the match came on Viola goalkeeper Luca Lezzerini's save. Mehdi Carcela Gonzalez stepped to the penalty spot, needing to score to keep Benfica alive. He attempted to beat Lezzerini low and to the right, but the 20-year-old made a sprawling save to prevent the goal.

It's appropriate Benfica and Fiorentina needed penalties to decide a winner. Although they combined for 19 total shots, they put only three of those on target.

The result will be especially disappointing for Benfica after the somewhat encouraging start to their ICC journey.

Although this was only their second match of the preseason—the first being a 3-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain—manager Rui Vitoria was very positive when discussing his team's overall preseason preparations.

"From our first day of work, there has been great attitude from the players," he said Thursday to Benfica's official site. "We have introduced some of our ideas and feel that we are evolving. The players are assimilating what we want, and we are very satisfied."

Despite losing to PSG, Vitoria had plenty of positives to take away from the result, particularly from his attack, which carved the French champions open at times—granted it was against a heavily weakened PSG.

But that attacking verve was all but absent against Fiorentina.

What the first half lacked in goals, it made up for with crunching tackles and a slight edge between the two sides as a result. The referee issued five yellow cards, four of which were to Fiorentina, through the first 45 minutes. Emotions were running high despite this only being a preseason match.

Fiorentina should've considered themselves lucky they didn't go into half-time down at least a man. Two separate moments could've easily drawn a red card.

The first came in the 29th minute after Gonzalo Rodriguez was given a yellow for what looked like a deliberate stamp on the left thigh of Anderson Talisca. BOLA 24 shared a replay of the incident on Twitter:

"

A agressão do capitão da Fiorentina, Gonzalo Rodríguez a Talisca. pic.twitter.com/9iJNMQPsXp

— BOLA 24 (@bola24pt) July 25, 2015"

The referee might have wanted to spare Rodriguez the ignominy of being sent off in preseason.

In the 36th minute, Marcos Alonso went in hard for a tackle on Andre Almeida. Once again, you could've made a case for a Fiorentina player earning a red. Planet Benfica didn't go to that extreme:

Perhaps owing to the physical nature of the first half, neither club mustered much of an attack early on. Benfica and Fiorentina had one shot on target apiece.

It looked as if the second half might come to life a bit more after Josip Ilicic's shot hit the underside of the crossbar and bounced away from goal, per Fiorentina:

Ilicic's shot was the best chance of the match from either side to that point, and you wondered whether it might encourage Fiorentina to take a few more chances and open up a bit.

Instead, the match quickly reverted back to its first-half state. Both teams played to a midfield stalemate with nobody budging an inch.

Luisao made things a little easier for his opponent after picking up his second yellow card of the match in the 66th minute. The Benfica centre-back earned his first yellow card arguing with the official after Rodriguez's stamp. The second came after he got the slightest of holds on Ilicic as the midfielder was running forward.

Playing down a man, Benfica reverted into a defensive shell for the match's remaining 20-plus minutes, while a series of substitutions between the 72nd and 74th minutes threw off whatever rhythm Fiorentina had built.

Ryan Hanrahan, a meteorologist in Hartford, drew attention to the changing weather conditions at Rentschler Field:

With the field becoming slightly more slick, the players had even more trouble stringing passes together and getting into the attacking third.

In short, it quickly became clear after Luisao's dismissal that the match would be going to penalties.

Friday's match wasn't a great advertisement for the game, but you have to expect two teams still working to get back to match fitness may look sluggish early in July. Plus, with the ICC's condensed nature, neither manager will have wanted to push his players too hard in a match where the stakes weren't very high.

Fiorentina have a bit of a break until their next match. They take on Barcelona in Florence on Aug. 2 before heading to London for a clash with Chelsea on Aug. 5.

Benfica will continue their International Champions Cup run in Harrison, New Jersey, Sunday night against the New York Red Bulls. They'll close out their North American tour with a preseason match with Club America in Mexico City on July 28.

Player Grades

Luisao, Benfica: C-

Luisao's first yellow card was completely preventable. While he had a right to argue the referee made a mistake in not sending off Gonzalo Rodriguez, he continued pressing the issue to a greater extent than it needed to be.

His second yellow card was a bit soft but a yellow nonetheless. He can't blame the referee after he already put himself in that situation.

In a match where your team is struggling to create any sort of sustained attack, getting sent off won't help matters.

Josip Ilicic, Fiorentina: C+

To say Josip Ilicic was the best attacker on the pitch is faint praise to a certain extent. He didn't exactly face a ton of stiff competition.

But Ilicic had the best chance on goal during the 90 minutes, and his run on goal in the 66th minute resulted in Luisao being sent off.

Luca Lezzerini, Fiorentina: B-

Luca Lezzerini only came on in the 73rd minute, but he undoubtedly had a massive impact on the match.

Since Benfica were already down a man when he entered, Lezzerini didn't exactly have a chance to get warm and test himself before the penalty shootout. That seemed to have little effect in the end as he made the save to earn Fiorentina the victory.

Bleacher Report is an Official Media Partner of the International Champions Cup North America.