Benfica slim title hopes are over with loss to Gil Vicente

With their 2-1 loss today at home to Gil Vicente, we can say that the clubs slim chances to capturing the league title are all but done and this rests heavily on the shoulders of the clubs current manager Jorge Jesus. What many Benfica fans saw as the clubs saviour, (I did not) has led the club to one of their more disappointing seasons in some time, this after spending a record €115.50M in player acquisitions over the summer transfer window.

Benfica's season should be considered a disaster after spending those sums of money to bring in the managers preferred players only to see a run of poor results. Those results have Benfica in third spot in Portugal with their Champions League aspirations hanging in the balance. Benfica trails second placed FC Porto by three points and a guaranteed place in the group stage but are also three points ahead of fourth place Braga and could fall out of the Champions League altogether.

Dantas catches attention of German clubs

Tiago Dantas got his first official start for Bayern Munich last weekend, a move that caught many by surprise with the 20 year old youngster having appeared in a total of just three minutes the whole season with the Bundesliga club. Dantas who was loaned to Bayern Munich until seasons end in October by Benfica has played a total of 69 minutes this season with Bayern and has spent most of his time with the second team.

Bayern has a buy option of just €7.5M if they decide to keep Dantas and have until the end of May to activate this clause, Benfica would be entitled to an additional 25% percent of any future sale by Bayern as part of the deal. The starting assignment for Dantas created a buzz in Germany and reports state the one current Bundesliga club and several second division sides are ready to move for Dantas if Bayern choose to not make the loan permanent.

 

Benfica's month of March earns rewards

Benfica was a perfect 4-0-0 in the month of March, scoring nine goals, while keeping a clean sheet in all games. The month has not gone unnoticed with the league recognizing the clubs performance by awarding keeper Helton Leite the keeper of the month, Seferovic the forward of the month and Jorge Jesus as the manager of the month. Seferovic was also named the player of the month having scored six goals with one assist in the four games. Benfica has continued their fine defensive form into this month and have now not allowed a goal in their last six league games.