Benfica and Bruno Lage have come to an agreement over the remaining time left on Lage's contract after the club and manager agreed to part ways after a poor run of form by Benfica which looks to have cost the club the league championship this season. When Lage renewed his contract in December he was signed until the summer of 2024 with an annual salary of €2M, which means that the club is on the hook for €8M in wages owed to Lage over the next four years. Benfica will continue to pay Lage his salary until he is hired by another club but the agreement states that depending on Lage's salary earned at set club, the team will pay an difference under the €2M that was agreed in December. The agreement could end up costing Benfica zero dollars if Lage who is represented by Jorge Mendes' Gestifute agency is hired by another club with an annual salary of €2M or more euro and Lage continues to earn the €2M or more over the next 4 years ending his contract with the Lisbon side. Benfica have installed assistant Nelson Verissimo as intern manager of the club as it looks to find Lage's replacement over the coming weeks.
Benfica President Luis Filipe Vieira has accepted the resignation of manager Bruno Lage after the club suffered another devastating defeat at the hands of Maritimo earlier today. Benfica now sits six points behind league leaders FC Porto who defeated Pacos Ferreira also today and see their title hopes fade with five league games remaining and Porto holding the tiebreaker. Lage has been unable to right the clubs ship over the past few months amid the long break in between due to the world's current COVID-19 pandemic with the club having earned only eleven points in their last ten games of a possible thirty, with many of the dropped points coming against league minnows.
Benfica travel over the ocean to Madeira to take on Maritimo in their Week 29 encounter as the squad continues to try to find their form in what is slowly turning into a lost season and championship after falling behind Porto by three points after a stunning home loss to Santa Clara in Week 28.
Benfica will be without Ruben Dias and Gabriel due to yello card accumulation and Taarabt due to injury. Benfica
will
play Maritimo tomorrow at 6pm WEST
and
they will dress 20 players from the list below.
Keepers- Vlachodimos, Mile Svilar, Ivan Zlobin
Defenders- Tomas Tavares, Jardel, Ferro, Nuno Tavares, Andre Almeida, Morato
Midfielders- Chiquinho, Pizzi, Franco Cervi, Rafa Silva, Samaris, Florentino, Julian Weigl, Zivkovic, Paulo Bernardo
Forwards- Carlos Vinicius, Jota, Dyego Sousa, Seferovic, Goncalo Ramos
