Benfica winger Rafa Silva is set to make his long awaited return from injury in January of 2020 with the Lisbon Derby encounter against Sporting in mid January as the target game for his comeback. Rafa who has been out of action since October 23 after suffering an injury in Benfica's Champions League game against Lyon was off to a great start to the season before going down.
Rafa who appeared in twelve games across all competitions before the injury had chipped in four goals and four assists and was leading the Portuguese League in player rating per game. Benfica though have continued their march to winning another league championship and his replacement Franco Cervi has contributed to the clubs success after a slow start. Benfica are looking forward to adding Rafa to the roster in January and hope that he does not take too long to shake off the rust.
Spanish side Espanyol have their eyes on out of favour Benfica striker Raul de Tomas as the Spanish club look to move out of the basement of the Spanish La Liga and avoid relegation this season. De Tomas who joined Benfica in the summer for one of the highest transfer fees paid by the club at €20M has yet to find his groove in the Portuguese League and has become Bruno Lage's fifth choice up front behind starters Carlos Vinicius and Chiquinho. While last seasons leading scorer Seferovic is the clubs first choice off the bench followed of late by youngster Jota. De Tomas who wants playing time would welcome a move back to his native land but Benfica are reluctant to let the striker depart on a loan move as they look to recover some if not all of the cost of the player from Real Madrid this summer. De Tomas who has yet to score for the club in league play after appearing in seven games has a total of three goals across all competitions in 1042 minutes of action, which is a goal every 347 minutes of play. Benfica are hoping that De Tomas finds his form with the club but are ready to listen to any intriguing offers for the 25 year old striker and move on.
Benfica's quest for their 8th Taca da Liga cup is now over after Guimaraes won and Benfica earned their third straight draw in group play to finish runner up to the Minho club. Benfica who had a two goal lead over Setubal going into the final ten minutes on goals from Raul de Tomas and Jota had their Taca da Liga game end 2-2 and become the only club of last seasons final four to not advance once again to the semi-final round. Benfica did find out today their path in the Taca de Portugal as they get set to take on Rio Ave in mid January at the Estadio da Luz and the winner of this encounter will move on to the two leg semi-final against the winners of the Famalicao/P.Ferreira encounter. Benfica who have won 29 Taca de Portugal Cups to date could face arch rivals FC Porto if all the cards fall into place in the Finals.
