Benfica share the spoils in Champions League

 

Benfica commenced their Champions League group stage campaign with a scoreless draw in Kiev against Dynamo as the two clubs who sit atop their leagues were unable to decide a winner. Some may say Benfica escaped Kiev with a draw after a late flurry by the hosts, who had an injury time winner reversed by VAR for offside but the Lisbon side was the better club on this night and were just unable to finish their chances.

Benfica had the ball on their feet for 68% of the match while both clubs produced just one big chance each in the game with Benfica's coming when striker Yaremchuk was unable to score against his former club, taking a point blank shot right at the legs of the Dynamo keeper. Benfica will take the away draw and the €900K that comes with it as they look to their second group game against group favourites Bayern Munich at the Luz on September 29.

Benfica win fifth straight league game

Benfica have maintained their perfect start to the season after a convincing 5-0 victory over Azorian club Santa Clara earlier today and are now 5-0-0 and sit atop Portugal alone. Benfica have had one of the busier schedules since the start of the season with their league play and their qualification games for the Champions League and have played a total of nine games since their first official game on August 10th against Spartak Moscow.

Benfica fans should not get excited just yet as the club had the same exact start to the season last year before being handed a week six 3-0 drubbing by Boavista that sent the clubs season spiraling. Boavista will look to mimic what they did last season as they will once again be Benfica's Week 6 opponents but will this time have to travel to Benfica's home ground to complete the task. The Lisbon side will be looking to squash any chances of a deja vu by the Porto club and continue on their league run but not before heading to Kiev to take on Dynamo for their opening game of Champions League play.

Benfica turned away Zenit before window closed

Benfica decided during the transfer window that they preferred to keep Portuguese International forward Rafa Silva with the club as opposed to agreeing to terms with Russian side Zenit. Benfica turned down a move for the 28 year old that would have saw the club pocket €30M but with Benfica qualifying for the Champions League and a guaranteed €37M to start by making the group stage it was easy to turn away the lucrative offer.

Rafa has been with Benfica since the summer of 2016 and has appeared in 188 games for the club across all competitions. Rafa in that time has scored 49 goals while setting up an additional 32, the speedy winger has yet to play outside of Portugal during his playing career. It was Zenit's second failed attempt to lure Rafa to Russia after failing to come to terms with Braga in 2016 and losing out on the player to Benfica then.