Benfica kicked off their league campaign with a dominant 5-1 victory over last seasons darlings Famalicao as they look to start rolling after this weeks disappointing loss in Champions League qualifying. Jorge Jesus made four changes to Tuesdays starting eleven inserting Luca Waldschmidt, Darwin Nunez, Rafa Silva and Gabriel while sitting Haris Seferovic, Pizzi, Julian Weigl and Pedrinho and the change paid dividend quickly when Benfica's new strike tandem combined to open the scoring with Waldschmidt chipping in a beauty to open the clubs scoring campaign.
New signing Everton Cebolinha doubled the Eagles lead before Alex Grimaldo picked the top corner on a set piece to give the club a 3-0 half time lead. Rafa Silva and Luca Waldschmidt would extend the lead to five with second half goals before Famalicao would get on the scoresheet breaking Vlachodimos' clean sheet. Benfica will play their home opener in Week 2 against Moreirense next Saturday at 6:30pm WEST as they look to keep their form going.
Portuguese International Ruben Semedo is still pushing for a move back to Portugal to join Benfica even though the club will not participate in Champions League play this season. The 26 year old central defender has been linked with the Lisbon side for weeks but with Benfica now in sell mode, any future acquisitions look set to be put on hold until the club sorts out some of its finances with FIFA fair play rules potentially a concern for next season.
Benfica has already spent €78M on acquisitions and will need to potentially sell a couple of prized assets to get to their dollars spent. Benfica could be looking to move striker Carlos Vinicius and midfielders Franco Cervi and Florentino with the hopes of bringing in close to €80M from the sale of all three players as they look to hold onto prized asset Ruben Dias a bit longer. Jorge Jesus is leading the charge to land Semedo but the club manager and player will need to hold on just a little longer.
Jorge Jesus's return to Benfica has started off with a thump and a kick to the rear, as Benfica get eliminated in a one game leg due to COVID-19 against Greek side PAOK and will not take part in the Champions League group stage for the first time since the 2009/10 campaign. After controlling all of the first half but coming up empty handed Benfica allowed an own goal off of newly signed center back Jan Vertonghen in the second half and then were haunted by recently released Zivkovic for the second goal in what turned into a 2-1 defeat and saved some face with a Rafa Silva header in the 94th minute from being shutout completely in Jesus' first meaningful game since his return.
The loss is devastating to a club that has spent over €80M bringing in reinforcements to the club in their bid to regain the Portuguese Championship but also make some noise in Europe's biggest club competition. The loss will also have a ripple effect within the squad as the club looks to recoup the funds lost from missing out on the Champions League group stage. This loss to PAOK has also shown that Benfica lack a true number eight in the middle of the field a problem that the club will need to address if they are to have success at home and in the Europa League this season.
