Genk right back El Ouahdi re-appears on Benfica radar

Benfica is once again being linked with a summer move for Genk right back Zakaria El Ouahdi. The Eagles looked into the 23 year old Moroccan U23 international this past summer but the club's where unable to agree to terms for El Ouahdi.

Benfica are not alone in their interest for the El Ouahdi with several German clubs also in pursuit of the Genk right back. Benfica continues to deal with problems at the right back position due to constant injuries to starter Alexander Bah and lacking a natural alternative to him.

Benfica are said to be willing to increase their summer bid for El Ouahdi, in what was rumoured to be in the €8M to €10M mark. El Ouahdi has been with Genk since the summer of 2023 and has appeared in 58 games across all competitions for the Belgian side, scoring five goals while providing five helpers.

Benfica will travel to Barcelos to take on Tirsense

Benfica's semi-final opponent in the Taca de Portugal, Tirsense, has announced that they will play their home leg against the Lisbon side in Barcelos as they use Gil Vicente's Estadio Cidade do Barcelos for this encounter.

Tirsense's choice of stadium is about 35 minutes by car from their actual home stadium in Santo Tirso and is better suited for what is expected to be a boisterous Benfica crowd. 

The first leg game is scheduled to take place on April 9 with the return leg at the Luz on April 23. The winner of this two leg affair will take on the winner of Sporting/Rio Ave in the Finals on May 25.

Barcelona end Benfica's Champions League run

Benfica's Champions League run is over after sustaining a 3-1 loss in their second leg against Barcelona as the Lisbon side was totally out classed by the hosts and exit the competition in the round of 16.

It was a strange starting XI for Benfica who once again decided to go conservative on the attack from the wing back position, starting Tomas Araujo at right back and Samuel Dahl in for suspended Alvaro in his first start at left back in months.

Barcelona where relentless in their attack especially in the first half and Bruno Lage showed that he clearly could still not find the proper recipe against Barca in their third encounter of the competition this season.

Benfica killer Raphinha opened the scoring just eleven minutes into the contest before Benfica got an equalizer from Otamendi just two minutes later. 17 year old wonderkid Yamal would give Barca the lead once again just fourteen minutes later and Raphinha would get his second of the contest and fifth of the competition against Benfica just before the half.

The second half saw no changes from Lage to start the half, which left many scratching their heads and made you think if Lage actually knew the club needed to score three goals, just get into additional time.

Benfica had an Aursnes goal called back for an offside in the build up to the play, one of nine offsides the club would see called against them on this night.

Benfica in the end lived to regret not pulling off a victory over ten man Barcelona in the first leg, where they could just not get the ball past Barcelona keeper Szczesny. Benfica should receive in the vicinity of €65M total for making it to this stage of the competition.

The club will not turn their attention to capturing the Portuguese League title and are still in the Taca de Portugal competition.