We've been here before, but Benfica look the real deal - and this time it's different
As the summer transfer window reached its conclusion, Benfica added another quality name to their ranks, and this one had many fans particularly excited.
Yet with or without the impressive addition of World Cup champion Julian Draxler to the fold, there would have been understandable optimism surrounding Benfica, one which has only increased in the couple of weeks that have since elapsed.
With a 100% winning start to the season across all competitions - with 6 victories in the league and another 6 in Europe - Benfica are sitting top of the table domestically, and have not only once again reached the group stage of the UEFA Champions League, but have already constructed a six point advantage over 3rd-place Juventus in their group’s standings.
This may seem almost par for the course to the average football fan - Benfica are, after all, one of the Big Three in Portugal who have collectively won all but two Portuguese titles in the country’s near 90-year history, and are Champions League perennials, even reaching the quarter final of Europe’s elite club competition last campaign - but having not even come close to winning the league across the last two seasons, and having seen the club miss out on Champions League football entirely due to a humbling defeat to Greek outfit PAOK on the last occasion a new manager took over at the club just two years ago, there is much reason for genuine excitement.
We’ve been here before of course. Optimism was extraordinarily high in the build-up to the 2020-21 season following the return of manager Jorge Jesus to the club after his rather historic Copa Libertadores success with Flamengo, while a hatful of incredibly high profile signings such as Darwin Nunez, Everton Cebolinha, Pedrinho, Jan Vertonghen and Luca Waldschmidt further made Benfica look like Primeira Liga champions in waiting before a ball was even kicked. Even Edinson Cavani came agonisingly close to joining the club.
Everything unravelled, of course. Benfica were not only stunned by PAOK on that jarring night in Greece, but they also ended up taking just 3rd in the league, well behind their two big domestic rivals, while they also fell in the round of 32 in the UEFA Europa League. The football disappointed too, and there was a feeling of general toxicity around the club, epitomising how quickly things can change in football.
This time, however, it is tangibly different to that false dawn in 2020. First and foremost, the optimism on that occasion came exclusively from the movements in the transfer window. It was all smoke with no fire, all promise with no end product. The stellar names on the teamsheet got fans excited - the football, it turns out, did not.
This campaign, under Roger Schmidt, there has not only been a few intriguing additions to the squad - namely David Neres, Enzo Fernandez and, most recently, Julian Draxler - but there has, more importantly, also already been clear evidence of some entertaining football on display, with good pressure and intensity which was sorely lacking in Jesus’ second spell at the club firmly taking shape in this new-look Benfica.
Winning twelve competitive matches out of twelve this season is a sensational return - including pre-season, it is seventeen wins out of seventeen; even the most confident of Benfica fans likely did not expect such a tremendous return.
In reality, all six league matches were clashes that Benfica fans would have expected to win. Arouca, Casa Pia, Boavista, Pacos de Ferreira, Vizela and Famalicao aren’t exactly top-level clubs even in the domestic game. But having seen Porto already stumble at Rio Ave and Sporting lose at home to Chaves, upsets do happen, and that Benfica have so far avoided one is, at least, encouraging.
The biggest evidence that this is more than a false dawn, however, has come in the UEFA Champions League. Beating Maccabi Haifa was expected, but to come from behind to topple Juventus 1-2 away from home - and do so with such a stellar second half performance which almost overwhelmed the Italian giants - was a fantastic showing of character, and is proof of Benfica’s ability to compete with elite level clubs.
The optimism of 2020-21 reached such heights that there was even talk of Benfica potentially managing to make a noise in European competition. Clearly they failed that task miserably, but having made the quarters of the Champions League last year with a caretaker manager at the helm and a squad that didn’t look completely up to scratch, could they somehow do something even more extraordinary this time?
Benfica fans are able to dream of something special again.
Roger Schmidt during his time as Bayer Leverkusen. Photo author: Fuguito . License link.
