Manchester City had Benfica youngster Florentino Luis on it's short list of players that they wanted to acquire to replace an aging Fernandinho. Pep's Man City side inquired about what it would take to acquire Florentino from Benfica before the close of the English league transfer window but Benfica's move to increase the 20 year old defensive midfielders buy out clause to €120M put off any deal being reached at this time for the promising youngster. Benfica are hoping to striker gold with Florentino as they did earlier this summer with forward Joao Felix and his appearances as a member of the starting eleven will have many team scouts watching his every move.
Benfica continued their perfect run to start the season with a 2-0 win over Belenenses away from home at Jamor. Benfica faced a strong defending Belenenses squad in the smaller Lisbon derby and needed two second half goals to earn the victory. Benfica opened the scoring with an early second half goal from Rafa Silva set up by a Pizzi back heel and then Rafa returned the favour, assisting on Pizzi's extra time goal. The tandem have been spectacular to start the season and Benfica managed to earn their second consecutive clean sheet to start the season. Next up for Benfica will be "O Classico" against FC Porto at the Estadio da Luz on August 24.
Benfica are open to the move of midfielder Franco Cervi before the transfer market closes this summer. Cervi has not been a first team option of manager Bruno Lage and on many occasions is not even included on the game day squad. Cervi joined Benfica in the summer of 2016 and has appeared in 116 games for the club across all competitions, Cervi has scored 16 times and assisted on another 22 goals in his Benfica career. Reports say that their are currently two European clubs interested in Cervi but no formal offers have been made for his services. Benfica would move Cervi for no less then €15M and would also be open at letting Cervi move on a season long loan with an option to buy.
