Taarabt suspended until October by league

The Portuguese League has announced the suspension of Benfica midfielder Adel Taarabt for 23 days and 2 games for an incident that took place in the Taca de Portugal final against Braga back in May. The incident involved a red card that Taarabt received at the end of the encounter in which he was unhappy by a tackle received at the hands of Braga's Lucas Piazon and proceeded to initiate a melee that saw several players on both sides push and shove one another.

Taarabt will first serve his 23 day suspension which would end on September 19 and then serve his two game suspension. In total Taarabt will miss five league games and due to International competition in both September and October will not be available again until October 24 when the club travels to take on Vizela. Braga's former keeper and technical team member Eduardo was also suspended for 30 days for his part in the incident.

Benfica Champions League group revealed

Benfica have learned their fate when it comes to their UEFA Champions League campaign and will be a part of Group A along with Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Dynamo Kiev in a very competitive group as the club looks to advance to the round of 16 campaign in the new year. Benfica's group schedule looks like this

 

Game 1- September 14  - at Dynamo Kiev

Game 2- September 29 - vs Barcelona

Game 3- October 20 - vs Bayern Munich

Game 4- November 2 - at Bayern Munich

Game 5- November 23 - at Barcelona

Game 6- December 8 - vs Dynamo Kiev

Benfica move into Champions League group stage

Benfica will join Sporting and FC Porto in the Champions League group stage this season after holding off a persistent PSV to a scoreless draw in their second leg encounter. Benfica went down to ten men at the 32nd minute mark of the game after Lucas Verissimo received his second yellow card in what was a bit of a questionable decision but it turned the game on it's head with Benfica providing little to no attack the rest of the way, but the club put on a superb defensive clinic with a little luck on the side.

Benfica will now receive around €37M from UEFA for qualifying for the group stage and are guaranteed six games in the Champions League to add more to that total. UEFA will pay out €3.28M for every group stage win and €1.09M for each draw in the competition. The qualification will also keep the club away from selling important pieces, unlike last season when their failure to make the group stage saw defender Ruben Dias depart before the summer transfer window closed.

Benfica will be placed in pot 3 for Thursday's group stage draw along with FC Porto, Ajax, RB Leipzig, Atalanta, Zenit and two of Shakhtar Donetsk, RB Salzburg, Besiktas or Dynamo Kiev depending on the results of tomorrow's final playoff games. A group of death featuring previous champions is very likely this season with the potential of a Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and AC Milan joining Benfica when the draw takes hold.