Benfica have made a decision about young defensive midfielder Florentino when it comes to a loan move during the transfer window to Italian club AC Milan and that is that the Lisbon side will hang onto the 20 year old at least until season end. The two sides have been heavily linked over the past ten days with reports stating that Florentino would head to Milan on an 18 month loan deal with an option to buy for €40M, but Benfica manager Bruno Lage has no interest in seeing Florentino leave the club and has had discussions with Benfica President LFV about this. Florentino who signed a new contract over the summer with a buy out clause of €120M has not appeared in a league game for Benfica since early November and has appeared in 13 games across all competitions this season. Florentino was a key member of last seasons second half squad, who over turned a seven point deficit to win the Portuguese League but with the recent acquisition of Julian Weigl, Florentino's playing time will be greatly reduced. Benfica are set to sit with Florentino to discuss their expectations from the youngster as they look to win another league championship.
Benfica are still looking for a striker to replace the recently departed Raul de Tomas and with the club being linked to various strikers outside Portugal it may just be time that Benfica take a look within the Portuguese league to add a third string striker in case of injuries to current strikers Carlos Vinicius and Haris Seferovic.
The clubs current strikers on the B squad are both under the age of 21 and without any minutes in the top league for either, the club would be taking a big risk if they do not shore up the position with half a season in front of them. A move for a striker within the league would land the club with a player who is famaliar with the style of league play and also not break the bank. There are a handful of strikers that Benfica can turn to that are having respectable seasons for their current respective clubs, some of the names that come to mind are Rio Ave's Taremi, Gil Vicente's Sandro Lima, Aves' Mohammadi and Famalicao youngsters Anderson Silva and Toni Martinez.
Benfica continued their perfect run in the Portuguese league season with their victory over Pacos Ferreira and have yet to drop points away from home at a perfect 9-0-0. The starting eleven saw a change by Bruno Lage with Rafa Silva taking over for Chiquinho in the secondary striker role behind Carlos Vinicius. The change would work to perfection with Rafa looking more dangerous in the opening 30 minutes then Chiquinho has in the last ten games. Benfica thought the had opened the scoring just twenty minutes into the game when Pizzi would tap in a Carlos Vinicius cross but VAR incorrectly called Vinicius offside and the game remained scoreless until a perfect pass by central defender Ruben Dias found Rafa Silva who would score his third goal since returning from injury at the 38th minute mark. Pizzi almost doubled the lead before the half but Pacos keeper Ricardo made a spectacular stop to keep the game within one. Carlos Vinicius though would double the lead just two minutes into the second half tapping in a Rafa Silva low cross into the box. The teams would not score again as Benfica open the second half of the season with a victory to open up a ten point lead atop Portugal with second place Porto yet to play their Week 18 game. Benfica will next host Belenenses at the Estadio da Luz in Week 19 action.
