Atalanta win gives Benfica direct entry to Champions League

Atalanta did Benfica a favour by defeating Torino 3-0 earlier today and locking a spot in Serie A's top four. The victory hands Benfica a direct entry into next season's Champions League and a minimum of about €40M that the club can put into their coffers.

Since Atalanta won the Europa League earlier this week, it gained automatic entry to next season's Champions League, but by guaranteeing a top 4 spot in Serie A, the Europa League spot now becomes vacant and goes to the best ranked club in the Champions League qualifying stage, which is Benfica.

The direct entry will adjust Benfica's off season plans as they can now focus on strengthening the club, with the group stage only kicking off in September as opposed to playing two rounds of qualifying, which would have commenced in early August.

The revamped Champions League format will see all clubs that qualify for the group stage play a minimum of eight games now, two against clubs in pots 1, 2, 3 and 4. The top eight clubs out of the 36 clubs advance automatically into the round of 16. While the clubs that finish 9th to 24th play a two leg playoff for a spot in the round of 16. 

Clubs that finish 25th or lower are eliminated from the competition and have no entry into the Europa League. Benfica will be seeded in pot 2 when the draw takes place on August 29th.

Angel di Maria set to return to Argentina

Angel di Maria's time at Benfica looks like it will be one and done, according to reports from Portugal's sports dailies. The Portuguese press is reporting that Di Maria has a verbal agreement in place to return to his childhood club, Rosario Central, amid for just six months.

Di Maria has always stated that his dream would be to finish his career at Rosario, but an event in March, when the 36 year old winger received threats to himself and his family if he were to return to Argentina, put those thoughts in doubt.

Di Maria is said to have had a change of heart and is once again open to returning to Rosario but he would do so alone, with his family moving to Miami to live. Di Maria is also demanding that heavy security be provided by Rosario for himself and that he will live in Buenos Aires, a full 300 km away from Rosario.

Benfica President Rui Costa is still set to meet Di Maria next week to discuss the winger staying at the club for another season, but a social media post by his spouse stating that she and Di Maria will miss Otamendi and his spouse has set the rumour mill of departure on overdrive.

Our 1000th Blog... Unbelievable

When I first decided to create an English blog dedicated to Benfica, I never imagined that I would still be going strong almost 5 years after my first post. The years have gone by and there have been happy times, sad times and plenty of other emotions that range from high to low when it comes to this club from Lisbon.

I never imagined that I would grow a following, not only on Blogger but also on Twitter, Flipboard and Reddit. I have striven to provide an honest look at Benfica over these years without being biased in my views of the club and on the majority of occasions, I feel that I have accomplished that.

This has now become a passion of mine and I hope to continue providing the fans of this blog with the latest insights, news and potential moves pertaining to the club for another 1000 posts. Here's a toast to that.

Thank you to everyone who has supported this blog over the years and I hope you continue to do so going forward. 

Links to some of our pages are below if you would like to follow me in other areas.

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