Benfica failed the attempt to go for their first ever ‘Penta’, a fifth consecutive league title. After dominating Portuguese football for the last four seasons, first with Jorge Jesus at the helm, and then with Rui Vitória, Benfica played a less than satisfying season, this time around, specially if we take into consideration their Champions League performance and some early knock outs on Portuguese cups.
The beginning of the season was quite disappointing. Benfica was suddenly playing very bad, and there is no way the departures of three important men from the back can justify that sudden drop. The amazing goalkeeper Éderson left the club together with Nélson Semedo and Lindelof who had all great seasons, in the previous edition; all left to join big clubs. There was no real investment in the replacement of any of the three. After some doubts and interchanges with (very) young newcomer Svilar, Bruno Varela assumed the place between the posts, but it was always felt like a quick fix up rather than a proper long term, solid solution. Useful André Almeida had to be called to play in first team at the right side of defence, as new signing Douglas was always a liability whenever he was called. Jardel and youngster Rúben Dias replaced the departing Lindelof and the aging and out of form Luisão in the centre.
Although a very important aspect for the start of the season, this cannot explain the whole reason why Benfica was playing so much poorer than in the previous two seasons,
While on Champions League, Benfica had the shameful “honour” of having the worst performance ever in the competition, with 6 defeats in 6 games, the performance on domestic competitions was not much better. From round 4 to round six, Benfica lost four points, and it could have even been worst, as their home win against Portimonense felt like falling from the sky.
Then things improved a bit, until the half of the season, with two draws against the direct rivals and two points lost at Funchal, against Marítimo. However, some shaky performances like the 1-0 home in over Feirense were still getting the fans worried.
From round 18 to 29, with no more continental football to be played, and having been knocked out from both domestic cups in the meantime, Benfica grabbed the best sequence of both scores and convincing performances of the season. Aside an away draw at Restelo (where rivals Porto would eventually lose, some weeks after), Benfica had a perfect run and, more importantly, had done it with a return to good, solid, bossy approach in all games. The insertion of first Krovinovic and then Zivkovic replacing the injured Krovinovic in the midfield while Jonas was left as single central forward (some sort of false nine) was key to this significan improvement.
By the time Benfica and Porto were about to play what would eventually was the match of the season, ‘Encarnados’ were already leading the table thanks to two consecutive away defeats of Dragões. However, when things really went serious, Benfica shaked and allowed Porto to get the three points from their visit to Estádio da Luz. Benfica would lose the first place irreversibly as their own supporters were watching.
As Porto didn’t drop any more points until the end, Benfica was left to fight for the second half that gave access to next season’s Champions League. And that proved to be a hard task as well. After the defeat to Porto, Benfica had a second home defeat, now to the modest Tondela, which allowed Sporting to catch them on the table. In a season full of epic moments, the two Lisbon rivals were to meet each other at Alvalade right in the following round: the match ended with a goalless draw, which at that time gave Sporting a direct advantage to Benfica.
“Epically enough”, Sporting would end up losing their last match, allowing Benfica to get a consolation second place in the very final round, and at least grant access to the all important Champions League.
Jonas was yet again a show on his own. Every time he played, he was the most influential player on the team, and decided an amazing amount of games on his own. Despite having missed 8 matches on injury, the Brazilian forward scored an amazing sum of 34 goals, while his influence on the team goes much further from the goals he scored.
Fejsa was the habitual safe pendulum in the midfield, while Krovinovic had an important role when he Rui Vitória finally decided to give him first team football, orchestrating the midfield with creativity that had no match in the rest of his teammates. Unfortunately, the Croatian got injured, quite badly, but Vitória found a good replacement in Zivkovic whoe kept the levels until the end of the season. One wonders what this side can do next season if Krovinovic and Zivkovic are matched up to play together on the midfield.
Player of the Season: Jonas Goncalves
