Benfica look to continue perfect start to season

Benfica will go into the weekend looking to maintain their perfect start to the season when they travel to Famalicao Saturday for a league game. Benfica under the guidance of new manager Roger Schmidt have won all five of their league games to start the season and have also won all their five games in the Champions League which includes four qualifiers.

Benfica's longest winning run in all competitions is 18, which happened between December 12, 2020 and March 2, 2011. Benfica's longest league winning run was 29 games which occurred in the 70's from April 9, 1972 to March 11, 1973. The club still holds the European record for most games unbeaten in all competitions when from December 22, 1963 to February 14, 1965, Benfica went 48 games without suffering a loss.

Benfica open Champions League with a win

Benfica kicked off their Champions League campaign with a convincing 2-0 victory over visiting Maccabi Haifa, as the Eagles maintained their perfect start to the season under new manager Roger Schmidt winning their first ten competitive games. Benfica scored a pair of second half goals just four minutes apart in their victory with Rafa Silva and Alex Grimaldo finding the back of the net for the club.

Benfica will now travel to Italy to face Juventus next week in what many believe to be a battle for second spot in the group and a chance for a place in the competitions round of 16 next year. Juventus are coming off a 2-1 loss to group favourites PSG and will not be in a welcoming mode as they will look to end Benfica's current run. Benfica and Juventus are set to battle at the Allianz stadium on September 14.

Ins and Outs of what Benfica did during the transfer window

The transfer window has closed throughout most of Europe with only a few league windows remaining open but from Europe's lesser leagues. Benfica completed some major moves both in and out at the club with their biggest change coming on the sideline by the hiring of manager Roger Schmidt who became the clubs first foreign manager since Quique Flores was at the club in 2009.

Benfica finished the summer transfer window with a positive €65M from what the club earned (€127.3M) and what the club spent (€62.3M), this total does not include the €40M the club will receive from qualifying for the Champions League group stage. 

The Breakdown of Benfica's 2022 summer transfer season:

Player Exits:

Darwin Nunez to Liverpool for €75M + add ons

Roman Yaremchuk to Club Brugge for €16M + add ons

Everton to Flamengo for €13.5M

Jota to Celtic for €7.3M

Gedson Fernandes to Besiktas for €6M

Carlos Vinicius to Fulham for €5M

Pedro Pereira to Monza for €2.5M

Nuno Santos to Charlotte for €1M

Haris Seferovic loaned to Galatasaray for €1M

Pizzi to Al Wahda on free transfer

Jan Vertonghen to Anderlecht on free transfer

Mile Svilar to Roma on free transfer

Julian Weigl on loan to Borussia Mochengladbach

Soualiho Meite on loan to Cremonese  

Gabriel on loan to Botafogo

Ferro on loan to Vitesse

Tiago Dantas on loan to PAOK

Valentino Lazaro returned to Inter Milan after loan spell

Nemanja Radonjic returned to Marseille after loan spell

Adel Taarabt became free agent

 

Player Arrivals:

David Neres from Shakhtar Donetsk for €15.3M

Fredrik Aursnes from Feyenoord for €13M

Enzo Fernandez from River Plate for €10M + add ons

Joao Victor from Corinthians for €8.5M 

Alexander Bah from Slavia Prague for €8M

Petar Musa from Boavista for €5M

Julian Draxler on loan from PSG for €2.5M

John Brooks signed as free agent previously at Stuttgart

Mihailo Ristic signed as free agent previously at Montpellier

Florentino returned from loan at Getafe

Chiquinho returned from loan at Giresunspor

Henrique Araujo moved up from Benfica B

Samuel Soares moved up from Benfica B

Antonio Silva moved up from Benfica B