Zenit hope to convince Neres to join club

Zenit St. Petersburg is reportedly set to make a big push for Benfica winger David Neres hoping to convince the 26 year old to leave the Lisbon club and make the move to Russia. Zenit are hoping that Neres current role of substitute for Benfica can play a part in Neres agreeing to the move.

Neres joined Benfica last summer as he departed Ukrainian club Shakhtar Donetsk for €15.3M and signed a five year contract at the time with a buy out clause of €100M. Benfica are reluctant to let the talented winger go but Zenit are determined to offer Neres a salary he may not be able to refuse and are said to be ready to offer Benfica €40M+ for his services.

Benfica will hope that Russia's current situation with Ukraine which was part of the reason Neres departed last summer and the countries sanctions that see no club compete in UEFA competitions is enough of a deterrent to keep Neres in Lisbon.

With the uncertain futures next summer of Angel di Maria and Rafa Silva, Benfica can not afford to lose the skilled winger.
 

Benfica tickets in high demand in Portugal

Benfica's clinching of the Portuguese League last season and their recent victory to open the season in which they captured the Super Cup over arc rivals FC Porto, has re-activated that special place in the hearts of the clubs supporters and they are showing love with a high demand for tickets to watch the club this season.

Benfica announced that active club members will have priority in purchasing tickets to the clubs games this season as the club struggles to make all its fans happy with the current demand for tickets much higher then seats available. This is an important moment for the club as they look towards another memorable season both at home and abroad in UEFA.

Benfica get season going on the wrong foot

 

Benfica started the defense of their league title with a very sloppy performance against Boavista that proved costly as the Lisbon club lost their season opener for the first time in over ten seasons suffering a 3-2 loss.

Benfica opened the scoring in the first half when Rafa Silva fed Angel di Maria who converted to give the visitors the lead but a straight red card received by striker Petar Musa early in the second half would see Benfica go down a man for the remainder of the game.

Boavista would bring the game level before Rafa Silva restored Benfica's lead with fifteen minutes to play. Benfica looked set to take home the three points until Antonio Silva's aggressive tackle in the penalty box sent Boavista to the spot to bring the game level once more at the ninetieth minute.

Boavista would score the winner thirteen minutes into injury time when Benfica was caught pressing for the winning marker and napping on the back end as Boavista striker Bozenik broke out all alone to seal the clubs fate with his second marker of the game.