Benfica lay major dent in Sporting title hopes

Benfica look to have handed their cross town rivals Sporting a major blow in their aspirations to repeat as Portuguese League Champions after a 2-0 victory at the Estadio Jose Alvalade yesterday. Benfica kept their slim hopes of finishing second alive with the victory closing their gap on their Lisbon rivals to six points with four league games remaining but Sporting currently holds the tiebreaker if the clubs finish level on points. 

Darwin Nunez continued his hot form scoring the opening goal and his league leading 25th of the season while setting up the second goal late in the game. Benfica's final four games of the season will see them face Maritimo and Pacos Ferreira on the road, while they will host Famalicao and current league leaders FC Porto at the Estadio da Luz.

Benfica look to make millions from summer sales

The football season is coming to an end and for us Benfica fans their is nothing left to look forward to until next season kicks off with the club out of every competition left and with no chance of capturing the league title for a third consecutive season.

Benfica are set for big changes this summer with the clubs most important move bringing in a new manager with a new vision to get this club back on track and that man looks set to be announced shortly in current PSV manager Roger Schmidt. Look for the club to make the announcement of the over the coming weeks as they look to have their manager in place before the summer transfer window gets underway.

Benfica's next steps will be a major overhaul of the clubs current players, look for Valentino Lazaro, Soualiho Meite and Nemanja Radonjic to all return to their respective clubs without Benfica exercising their buy options on all three players loans. Benfica will then commence the sale of many of the clubs current players as they look to hit the €150M mark in summer moves.

The six players most likely to depart the club this summer include:

Benfica show fight in draw with Liverpool

Benfica say good bye to the Champions League from the quarter-final stage after an exciting two legs against Premiership side Liverpool as they fall 6-4 on aggregate after drawing the second leg 3-3 earlier today. Benfica's poor first half in the first leg looks to be the major difference in this encounter and has myself and other Benfica fans wondering why this club does not show the same hustle and vigor during league action.

Benfica needed to get the opening goal after falling 3-1 to Liverpool in the first leg but another opening corner kick goal from Konate opened the scoring for Liverpool. Goncalo Ramos would then bring Benfica level going into the half. The second half say a pair of goals from striker Firmino give Liverpool a 3-1 lead but Benfica did not quit and goals by Yaremchuk and Darwin Nunez brought the game level once again with eight minutes remaining.

A brilliant Allison save just minutes later after the Benfica equalizer kept the Lisbon side from going ahead as the Liverpool keeper denied a Darwin Nunez bullet from going in on the lower left side. Nunez would score again in injury time but his goal would be ruled off side for the third time in the game but this time VAR would not over rule the linesman's call siding with the officials on two of the three Darwin markers in the game. Benfica get set to face city rivals Sporting on Easter Sunday as they hope to put a dent on the Lions title hopes.