Benfica go into the final stretch of the I Liga with a comfortable 10-point tie over runners-up FC Porto and history in their favour, as never in the history of the Portuguese Championship has a club recovered from a nine-day recovery from such a huge disadvantage. If Benfica keeps their distance from their three followers (FC Porto, Sp. Braga and Sporting), they could be crowned champions long before the end of the competition.
The earliest champion in championship history was Jimmy Hagan’s Benfica, in 1972-73, in a 30-round championship where the Eagles needed just 23 to impose their superiority. That is, seven laps to go.
Matchday 26 will be played this weekend and looking at what remains to be played for the top four of the I Liga ranking, it is clear that the mission to rehabilitate FC Porto’s title is almost impossible: never before has a team recovered from such a huge disadvantage with nine rounds to go. Benfica leads with 68 points, ten more than the Porto players, 12 more than Sp. Braga and 15 more than Sporting.
At the same time, the battle for the title is not as hot as in other years. The trophy is almost handed over to Benfica after the draw between Sp. Braga and FC Porto in the last round, which preceded the stop for the bet of the selections.
The duel for access to the Champions League is alive and well and has several direct confrontations, while the leader FC Porto, Sp. Braga and Alvalade visit in the penultimate round, at a time when he will already be virtual champion, if he maintains the level and punctual regularity.
Currently, Benfica has 68 points – a record for the 25th round – with 27 still to be won until the 34th round of the I Liga and is already ten ahead of second place. This does not constitute a mathematical impossibility, but the truth is that there was never a reversal in the double digits. Since 1995-96, when wins were worth three points, the leader has been 10 or more points off second place only five times with nine rounds to go. And the sporting miracle never happened. That season, FC Porto even had 14 points more than Benfica, which only got three back at the end of the competition.
Other recoveries
To get an idea of Benfica’s advantage, it is good to remember that 10 years ago the two rivals were only two points apart on this point, with the Dragons somersaulting the table and the title by one point won.
But the current situation does not allow us to think of the same scenario. The champion stumbled in round 25 in Braga (0-0) and lived days of turbulence, with Sérgio Conceição threatening to slam the door. After overcoming the most tense environment, the coach with the most titles ever decided to stay off the dragons until the end of the championship, despite knowing that the champion’s title extension is a mirage.
Besides not being left to fend for itself, FC Porto will have to wait for its great rival to lose points, something it has only allowed in three of the 25 games played so far: two draws, with Sporting and V. Guimarães, and a defeat with Sp. Braga. The numbers are not reassuring for the Dragon’s sides: Benfica has the best attack (66) and the best defense (14), suggesting that hardly anything will change until the end of the competition, although the presence in the Champions League could still require some focus and add wear and tear to the squad.
The best that FC Porto did as a chaser in the same period was to close the gap to Boavista, in 2000-2001, crowning the chess team as champions by just one more point. In the Conceição era, the biggest recovery took place in 2019-20, when the white and blue team trailed Benfica by seven points on matchday 17 and finally succeeded in the mission to win the title lost last year in a draw (or more) impressive climb from Benfica. So with Bruno Lage, at the start of the 16th round, the eagles were in fourth place, seven points behind the blues and whites, clinching a historic title at the end of the race.
This season, in addition to visiting Luz on April 7, the dragons will have the derby with Boavista, and will close the championship at home against V. Guimarães.
Sp. Braga and lions rush out
Warriors and lions try to get a champion spot. In the next eight rounds, Sp. Artur Jorge’s Braga will be put to the test on several trips, including a trip to Estádio da Luz. Going to Bessa is also historically difficult for the Arsenal players, who receive Paços de Ferreira at the end of the championship.
Sporting will still go to Barcelos (match postponed) and Guimarães before receiving the hopefuls in the penultimate round. The Alvalade derby will certainly be important for the allocation of European places.
If they reach the final champions, Benfica can even say they started and finished in the lead. I mean… The eagles opened the 2022-23 championship on August 5 with a thrashing from Arouca (4-0) and were therefore the first to score points at the top of the table… for a day. Then the dragons defeated Marítimo 5-1 and started to lead… until the fourth round, when they lost to Rio Ave (3-1) and were overtaken by Benfica, who beat Boavista (3-0) in that round .
Source: DN
