Benfica are failing
Another day of Champions League disappointment re-emphasises just how far behind Europe’s elite Benfica currently are - and that gap doesn’t look like closing any time soon.
Benfica’s run to the European Cup final in 1990 seems a long time ago. And there’s a good reason for that. It was.
You have to go back nearly 30 years to place the last time Benfica even reached the semi-final of Europe’s most illustrious club competition, let alone the final, with Benfica’s best result in the Champions League being the quarter-finals on just four occasions since that European Cup final loss to AC Milan in 1990.
Since that night of disappointment in Vienna, Benfica have fallen further and further behind the elite group of clubs on the continental stage, and it is wholly apparent that Benfica are failing dismally in their bid to stay relevant in European football.
Club president Luis Filipe Vieira has made no secret of his desire to make Benfica competitive in the Champions League, the ultimate dream being to assemble a team constituting solely youth products capable of winning the biggest prize football has to offer.
But for a club seemingly showing such ambition, Benfica are quite clearly all talk and no substance, and have actually gone backwards as far as competing is concerned, the club’s decline in the last 5 years clear for all to see.
Five seasons ago, for example, Benfica finished 2nd in a Champions League group containing both Atletico Madrid and Galatasaray, before beating Zenit home and away in the round of 16 to reach the quarter finals, where a very narrow 3-2 aggregate defeat to heavyweights Bayern Munich was the only reason they departed the competition.
The campaign after that in 2016-17, they again made it out of their Champions League group ahead of both Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev, going out to Borussia Dortmund in the round of 16 after winning the home leg.
Benfica hit rock bottom in the 2017-18 season though. 6 group stage matches, 6 defeats in a less than competitive group containing Manchester United, CSKA Moscow and Basel. 14 goals conceded, just one goal scored. And Benfica were utterly humiliated on the most public of stages.
You could say that Benfica haven’t recovered since that season, having failed to perform to a high standard in the Champions League since then. Indeed, Benfica’s downfall can perhaps be tracked back further than that to as far as the 23rd November 2016.
That night in 2016 saw Benfica go 0-3 up against Besiktas in Istanbul in the opening half an hour of their group stage match, Benfica cruising and looking almost certain to secure all three points. However, goals from Tosun, Quaresma and Aboubakar in the 58th, 83rd and 89th minute saw Benfica throw away two hard-earned points, putting their effort to reach the knockout round in jeopardy.
Since that result, Benfica have won just 4 matches in the Champions League proper, drawing one and losing thirteen. 13 losses, in 18 Champions League matches over the last 3 years. An extraordinarily poor run of form that puts Benfica amongst the true minnows of European football.
Even in victory Benfica have failed to impress. Last season, for example, Benfica won two of their 6 Champions League group stage matches - both were against AEK Athens. A 2-3 away win saw 10-man Benfica throw away a two goal lead, and very nearly drop all three points, but for a tremendous long-range effort from Alfa Semedo in the closing stages of the game. They then won the home leg 1-0, and were far from inspiring.
And this season, their one victory in the Champions League has come against an out-of-sorts Lyon at home. But it was a truly frustrating display by Benfica, who threw away their early lead by showing no intensity against their French opponents. Only an Anthony Lopes mistake gifted Benfica their win.
However, their 3-1 loss to Lyon in France means that Benfica are all but out of the Champions League at the group stage yet again - a third season in a row where they have put up next to no challenge to qualify for the knockout round. And for the biggest club in Portugal, one of the biggest footballing nations on the planet, it is truly unacceptable.
For all of manager Bruno Lage’s success domestically, in European competition his reign over Benfica has been a huge disappointment, with no evident improvement since taking over from Rui Vitoria.
It isn’t easy to put your finger on exactly why Benfica are failing so considerably. I don’t think any fan is truly expecting Benfica to compete with the likes of Manchester City, Liverpool, Juventus and PSG to win the competition, but fans are at least expecting them to put up a fight to qualify for the knockout stages and make a decent run in the competition.
When placed in a mediocre group containing RB Leipzig, Lyon and Zenit, the expectations increase even further. So to have just 3 points from their opening 4 games is truly unacceptable.
The squad itself is somewhat inexperienced, a youthful side regularly fielded in European competition in a bid to build a squad capable of taking Benfica further in the future. Admirable, perhaps, though when you’ve seen no progress being made over the last 5 seasons, questions will rightly be asked and frustration will build.
A good example is with Tomas Tavares, Benfica’s 18-year old right back. He is yet to start for Benfica in the Primeira Liga, playing just 25 minutes in the Portuguese top flight this season, yet in the Champions League, he has played the entirety of all four matches - the full 360 minutes in total. What a bizarre strategy, to throw such a young, inexperienced player in the deep end without giving him anywhere near sufficient preparation in the league.
Speculatively speaking, that shows that Benfica are using the Champions League for one thing and one thing only - a platform to show off some of their young talent. They are using it almost as a shopping window, a chance to lure clubs into purchasing their young, exciting talent. Why else would Tavares play almost exclusively in Europe’s most prestigious competition?
That’s not to say that Tomas Tavares is to blame for Benfica’s poor performance in the Champions League this season, far from it, but it is an indication of just how low priority the Champions League seems to be to those in the Benfica hierarchy and how they are. Which is just baffling to even consider.
Joao ‘Jota’ Filipe is another good example. There have been 10 matches in the Primeira Liga this season, and he has taken part in just 61 minutes worth of football across those fixtures. In the Champions League, though, he started in Benfica’s opening match vs RB Leipzig, and played 67 minutes of the game.
Benfica have a very deep and talented squad, from the youth teams to the B team, through to the senior team. They have the quality to both play far better football, and secure far better results. But the approach in every game has been dire; every time Benfica play a side of any significant stature, both in Europe and domestically, they become a very different team. Under Lage, Benfica have thrashed teams 10-0, 6-0 and 4-0 on several occasions, but have also crashed out of the Portuguese Cup against Sporting, been knocked out of the Europa League by Eintracht Frankfurt, lost to Porto in the Primeira Liga, and been defeated by Lyon, Leipzig and Zenit in the Champions League.
When it comes to competing with big clubs in Europe, Benfica are failing. And while the future may be bright, the current state of the Lisbon club currently makes it hard to envisage Benfica becoming a competitive side in the Champions League anytime soon.
This all becomes even more difficult to accept when seeing the success that Ajax have been having in recent seasons in European competition with an equally young and home-grown squad. Their run to the Champions League semi-final last season shows that it is possible for teams outside the established top 5 leagues to reach the latter stages of European competition, and the dream of mimicking what FC Porto managed in 2004 may still be possible even in the modern game where the discepency in financial backing between clubs from England, Spain, Germany and Italy and the rest of the continent is bigger than it has ever been before.
But right now, Benfica are failing - and the sooner those at the top of the club realise that, the better.
