Benfica look to recapture Taca da Liga glory

In a competition that Benfica used to have a strangle hold on from its inception, the Lisbon club has now gone almost eight years since capturing this trophy, making the finals only once during this time frame.

Benfica captured the Taca da Liga seven of the first nine years of the competition's existence before going on their current dry spell, they hope to change that this week as the club enters the Final Four stage and gets set to face Estoril on Wednesday while city rivals Sporting take on Braga in the other semi-final game.

The winners of the semi-final games will play one another on Saturday, January 27th, in Leiria. Benfica go into the competition on a thirteen game unbeaten run across all competitions.

Benfica announce arrival of winger Benjamin Rollheiser

Benfica announced earlier today the arrival of winger Benjamin Rollheiser from Argentinian club Estudiantes. Rollheiser arrives on loan with a mandatory option to make the deal permanent at the conclusion of the season for €9.5M, which will give Benfica 90% of the players pass, while Estudiantes will retain 10% to cash in on a future sale.

The 23 year old arrived at the Lisbon club earlier than expected, but with the departures of Goncalo Guedes to Villarreal and Chiquinho to Olympiacos, Benfica made the move to bring the player over now instead of waiting until the summer. Rollheiser is a versatile winger who can also play in an attacking midfield role and as a secondary striker.

Benfica and Hoffenheim agree loan move for Juracek

Benfica and Hoffenheim have agreed to terms in principle for the loan move of left back David Juracek to the German side for the remainder of the season, with an option to make the move permanent for €12M.

The 23 year old Czech only arrived at Benfica in the summer with the hopes of replacing departing long time left back Alex Grimaldo but has not panned out and with Benfica's recent acquisition of left back Alvaro Fernandez earlier this week, Benfica no longer requires his services.

Benfica paid Slavia Prague €14M when they acquired Juracek and the club is hoping to recover a big chunk of their payment with the buy on clause added to the loan. Juracek has played only 478 minutes for the club across all competitions and has not provided much in the way of offense.