Benfica reached, four years later, its 38th national soccer champion title, after three dry seasons, coinciding with the Covid-19 pandemic and the withdrawal of fans from the stadiums.
In the first season with the 12th player back in the stands, the reds also reigned once again, by absolute majority in the last ten years, with six titles, against three for FC Porto and one for Sporting.
After five titles in six years – an unprecedented tetra from 2013/14 to 2016/17 and the reconquest in 2018/19, missing the penta in 2017/18 -, Benfica succeeds FC Porto, who misses out on the double in the it was Sérgio Conceição for the third consecutive season.
The eagles also reinforce the historical leadership, once again having eight scepters more than the 30 of the dragons and twice the 19 of the lions, in a competition in which 97.8% of the scepters went to the greats , with the exception of one of the Belenenses. (1945/46) and another from Boavista (2000/01).
The reds have eight more titles than the blue and whites, but they already had 19 more, when they won the 1983/84 edition, and after that, FC Porto won 20 of 29 championships.
In this period, the Porto players achieved an unprecedented five (1994/95 to 98/99), a tetra (2006/07 to 2008/09) and a tri (2010/11 to 2012/13).
Of the 9 scepters that escaped the blue and whites, Benfica snatched 6, in the 1986/87, 1988/89, 1990/91, 1993/94, 2004/05 and 2009/10 seasons, while Sporting added two (1999/00 and 2001/02) and Boavista (2000/01).
Thus, the reds lived a decade without any victory (1994/95 to 2003/2004) and only won one title in 15 years, between 1994/95 and 2008/09.
In 2009/10, in the first season under the command of Jorge Jesus, Benfica triumphed again, but then they did not win any of the next three championships, all conquered by FC Porto, who, in 90 games, only suffered a miserable defeat (1-3 at Gil Vicente, in 2011/12), and closed two editions undefeated.
After Kelvin’s traumatic goal, in a 2012/13 season in which he lost everything in the final minutes of the decisive matches, Benfica responded, however, with the first tetra in its history, something that not even in the time of the King Eusébio had achieved .
Even with Jorge Jesus, who spent six years at La Luz, Benfica won in 2013/14 and 2014/15 and, with Rui Vitória, reached the third in 2015/16 and the fourth in 2016/17, defeating, precisely, the current Fenerbahçe coach, who had gone to Sporting.
In 2018/19, the reds were close to fifth place, leading the championship with five games to go, but a home defeat against FC Porto, due to a goal by the Mexican Herrera in the final, put an end to the dream.
Rui Vitória was still a starter in the 2019/20 season, but was replaced by Bruno Lage, who, coming from team B, added 18 wins and a draw in 19 games, and sealed the reconquest of the eagles, after a sensational recovery.
After five titles in six years, which had not been seen in La Luz since the 1970s, Benfica seemed full in 2020/21, with Lage adding 16 wins and a loss in the first round, but the team it fell apart and, already in the midst of the Covid-19 era and led by Nélson Veríssimo, they lost the title to FC Porto.
The atypical 2020/21 championship, without an audience in the stands, was dominated by Sporting, against Benfica again with Jesús, who also started for the 2021/22 season, to ‘fall’ halfway, with everything lost, in a championship won by FC Porto.
For 2022/23, the president of Benfica, Rui Costa, opted for the German Roger Schmidt, coming from PSV Eindhoven, and the reds led the competition from the first to the last day, building a lead that reached 10 points and achieved fill a less successful part.
Source: TSF
