So here I go again. My Champions League Challenge was going well but it wasn't getting much interaction with peeps giving it a go or posting their successes so I began to get itchy feet when Bayern Munich was boring me a little so I thought why not go and try a save where I had enormous fun in my 2nd season in that story? So here is a Benfica story!!!!
Why Benfica? Well as I said I had a really fun half season managing them in my Champions League Challenge save and I got frustrated that after I left they sold a lot of their young talents which made me think what I could have done with them if they hadnt been sold on. The club has state of the art youth facilities etc and that is perfect for me as I much prefer a one club save!
Also there is the small matter of the curse set on the club by Bela Guttman who managed the club to their 2 European Cup victories in 1961 and 1962. After the second success he left after a dispute with the board and he famously said "Not in a 100 years from now will Benfica ever be European champions". So far he has proved to be right and the great Eusebio even went to his grave before the 1990 final to pray for him to lift the curse!!!!! Naturally my main aim is to break the curse and win the Champions League with Benfica.
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THE CLUB
Founded - 1904 Stadium - Estadio da Luz Capacity - 64,642 Nicknames - As Aguias (The Eagles), Os Encarnados (The Reds), O Glorioso (The Glorious One)
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HONOURS
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AIMS FOR THE SAVE
Break the Guttmann curse obviously!!! Naturally with such good youth facilities I hope to grow a team rather than splash the cash. I wouldnt mind getting the Portuguese national team job either and seeing what I can do there!!!!
Please follow and please comment - its the comments that really keep me going lol. So if you want rid of me dont comment I suppose lol.
Good luck with this one mate - I used to love Benfica a little while back and they have so many promising young talent! Hopefully this lasts a good few seasons so they can all develop into world class players.
Tbh I wasn't really aware of the Guttman curse until I recently read the Jonathan Wilson book - The Inverted Pyramid - and then when I went Benfica for a half season and left after winning the Europa League somebody reminded me of it and since I enjoyed that half season so much I had to go for it.
I dont think I will having had the pre-season I have just had - thinking long term. That being said in a way I hope I dont win it in the first season as that would probably ruin the save tbh.
I was surprised when I took over as having managed Benfica in the 2nd season in my last save I noticed that they had already sold several players in that save that I start off with here. A pleasant surprise was the transfer budget as I started off with nearly £80m which I presume was due to the sale of Joao Felix (who I aim to bring back).
One thing that did shock me is that I had a staggering 112 players under contract at the club. I am used to having a senior team, reserve team and youth team but Benfica have a senior team, a B team who play in the 2nd division, an U23 team and an U19 team who all play in active divisions of sorts so I have to judge who suits which team so they can all be successful. Off the top of my head I may just use my U19s for youth intake players and the rest I will judge on coach reports etc.
At the time of writing we are about to play in the Portuguese version of the Charity Shield and by no means is my transfer business done but I have purposely set my squad around my young players in order to build a dynasty. At the moment I have spent almost £50m but have recouped over £80m that so that shows how I am thinking although I haven't finished spending just yet!!!!!
So this is what I have done......
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PLAYERS OUT
Ignore the total sales fee as that includes the deals that happened before I arrived like the £112m received for Joao Felix. If you look at the dates you will see that the transfers are in 2 clumps datewise - the players I thought of shipping out straight away and then halfway through pre-season I came up with a plan and took a brave decision to sell some of my more experienced players!!!!
Pizzi took in the biggest fee as Man Utd paid £29.5m for him and despite him being my best RW I have no plans to replace him as I want to see how good Andrija Zivkovic is plus Pedrinho looks decent - not forgetting about a dozen youth prospects (at an exaggerated guess lol) that are bubbling away in the system.
Julian Weigl was sold as I know I can get a better player or a hot prospect for less money. Weigl is a decent player but he is slow and I have a glut of young Portuguese CMs waiting in the wings also - they arent ready yet but they will be so that was him on his way out.
Haris Seferovic was the top scorer as Benfica won the league last season but that holds no merit with me as I decided to ship him out to AC Milan for just over £10m. He was one of 3 strikers that I had with almost the same ability so I thought I would cash in.
My vice captain - Andre Almeida - was offloaded as when I took a closer look at him I realised that he just wasnt up to scratch so he went to join all the other Portuguese players at Wolves lol.
Finally Adel Taarabt, Andreas Samaris and Jardel were the 3 players I wanted to offload when I immediately arrived so to rake in over £20m for those 3 was decent business.
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PLAYERS IN
Just the 4 players and one of them is for the B team and another is an on loan young striker!
My first signing was Kristoffer Ajer from Celtic for £20.5m. I needed a CB and I have always wanted to manage him after seeing him do so well in my Newcastle save so I thought that it was a no brainer to bring him in. He is comfortable playing in midfield and should be the perfect ball playing defender that suits my system.
My other main signing for the first team was that of Nelson Semedo from Barcelona for £29.5m. I brought him back to the club after seeing that Andre Almeida was below the standard required and while I had hoped to spend much less on a RB he was the best player that was available and interested in coming to us at a reasonable price - as in not getting quoted £80m for Max Aarons lol.
My other 2 are prospects. Jan Hurtado comes in on loan and at the moment will be m 3rd choice striker. I seen him do great in one of my saves so I took him on a try before you buy deal. Andre Almeida came in just as Andre Almeida went out lol. The CM is a 19y/o prospect and should star for my B team and we shall see how he gets on.
My transfers arent finished - not by a long way!!!!!!! I still need a CM and an AMC at least! I had agreed to sign Lorenzo Pellegrini for £26.5m from Roma but he ended up signing a new deal with them instead.
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SQUAD AND AIMS FOR THE SEASON
I am delighted with my defence and in Luis and Gabriel my CMs are decent but I need backups. Rafa is a star in this league on the LW but I need an AMC and I hope that Zivkovic or Pedrinho perform on the RW. Up front I am relyong on Carlos Vinicius - he is decent for Portuguese football but maybe not continentally.
Nene spent the whole of his career with Benfica and is the clubs leading appearance maker. During his time at the club he won 10 league titles and 7 Portuguese cups as well as finishing as the top scorer in Portugal twice and winning the Portuguese player of the year in 1971. He also collected 66 caps for Portugal - scoring 22 times.
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AUGUST
Supertaca
Lineup - Svilar, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic*, Chiquinho (Camara), Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) My first game in charge leads us to a trophy - albeit a minor one. Sporting are historically one of the big 3 in Portuguese football but they really are a poor side just now and we won comfortably. Nelson Semedo grabbing a goal on is return was a nice touch.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis (Ferro), Gabriel*, Zivkovic, Rodriguez, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius A nice way to kick start our Liga NOS campaign!!!! We won very easily here and got off to a perfect start when James Rodrigues converted a penalty for a debut goal. They helped us out again with an own goal - I dont think our opponents should be so generous in the future as we should be good enough to win without their assistance lol.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius* What was I saying about our opponents help? lol. We got another own goal and a red card in our favour here as Gil Vicente were swept aside. Carlos Vinicius grabbed a brace too.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez*, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) A good win. Braga are one of the better sides in Portugal and have some decent players so to win and get a clean sheet is pleasing.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic, Rodriguez*, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius We finish off the month with yet another comfortable victory and another clean sheet. James Rodrigues was pulling the strings out there and assisted 2 of the goals - he has hit the ground running!
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SUMMARY
We enjoyed a perfect start to the season as we won all 5 matches, picked up the Supertaca and didnt concede a single goal! We really look like a good side domestically but its abroad where our tougher challenges lie ahead.
I obviously needed to strengthen the squad further and I did just that! The answer to my AMC problem as you can see above was James Rodrigues who I brought in from Real Madrid for an eye watering £47.5m. He was transfer listed at Madrid and they are paying a large chunk of his wages but he will be well worth the record transfer fee that I paid to bring him back to Portugal having of course already played for FC Porto.
I added a bit of strength and depth with my other 2 signings who both came from Argentina. Firstly Agustin Almendra joined from Boca Juniors for £3.5m to compete for the CM positions. He is a decent young player and will hopefully develop into a star player and he will be in my first team squad.
Secondly I went ahead with a move that my DOF set up to bring in Lautaro Valenti from Lanus for £2.5m. The 20y/o is a promising centre back and will start with my B team.
There is one dark cloud in the horizon however as my transfer spending has apparently put us in a position to fail this years FFP regulations. Maybe the Champions League revenue will kick in and sort that out. Who knows? I still have the best part of £30m to spend too!
In the Champions League it is safe to say that we wont be winning it this season as in the group stages we have been put in a group with Real Madrid, PSG and Young Boys!!!!!
Veloso spent the majority of his career with Benfica and won 7 league titles and 6 Portuguese cups while at the club. Equal 2nd in the all time appearance list he also won 40 caps for Portugal and is the father of a former FM wonderkid - Miguel Veloso.
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SEPTEMBER
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodrigues, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) I didn't see this result coming!!!! We battered Tondela and hit the woodwork numerous times plus their keeper got the MOM award. At least we kept another clean sheet and Porto got beat too.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis (Almendra), Gabriel, Zivkovic, Chiquinho (Pedrinho), Rafa (Hurtado), Carlos Vinicius* Not our finest performance but we got the win and that's all that matters - another clean sheet too! Almendra and Hurtado made their debuts here.
-- UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo (T.Tavares), Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic, Rodriguez*, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius (Hurtado) **** sake. To get 3rd place in this group we really needed to win this as on paper its by far and away our easiest match but we laboured to a draw. Gabriel put us in front but a horrendous error from Vlachodimos cost us dearly. We finished the game with 10 men as Zivkovic went off injured after I had made my subs.
The goal that we conceded was the 1st goal we have let in this season.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo*, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo (N.Tavares), Luis (Camara), Almendra, Pedrinho (Cervi), Chiquinho, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius Yet again we weren't convincing and even though we got the clean sheet they missed a couple of one-on-ones so we were a bit fortunate to win in the end. We were missing a few players however.
-- Allianz Cup 3rd Phase Group C
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ferro, Alvaro, N.Tavares, Almendra, Camara*, Pedrinho (Embalo), Chiquinho (Nascimento), Cervi, Dyego Sousa (Hurtado) Estoril are in the division below us so I put out my backups and they just sneaked it. I started with 5 teenagers on the pitch and 3 more came off the bench as I ended the game with 8 teenagers.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo (N.Tavares), Luis, Gabriel (Camara), Zivkovic, Rodriguez*, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius Maritimo have been the surprise team so far with 7 wins out of 7 but we came out on top here thanks to James Rodriguez's penalty. We have won our last 3 league games 1-0 now.
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SUMMARY
This month was decent enough but I have my own little worries. The only poor result was our 1-1 draw against Young Boys in the Champions League but domestically we have been solid as we are yet to concede a goal at home - thats 10 domestic games that we have kept the opposition out.
We arent scoring enough goals however and I am really disappointed with Rafa who should be starring at this level but he has been rubbish. He better up his game next month as we will be up against Porto, PSG and Real Madrid.
Signed for just £890,000, Luisao is equally the 2nd highest appearance maker for Benfica. He won a plethora of titles while with Benfica as he won 7 Portuguese titles, 3 Portuguese Cups and 7 Portuguese League Cups as well as a few Super Cups. For Brazil he won the Copa America and he garnered 44 caps while scoring 3 goals in the process.
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OCTOBER
UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, N.Tavares, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Zivkovic, Rodriguez, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) If you offered me a point before the game I would have bitten your hand off but to only get a point after playing against firstly 10 men and then 9 men is not acceptable. To make matters worse - Young Boys got a draw against PSG!!!!
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Allianz Cup 3rd Phase Group C
Lineup - Svilar, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, N.Tavares, Luis, Gabriel (Camara), Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius* Another clean sheet lol. Incredible. We actually managed to score more than one goal too which is a nice change. Vlachodimos was injured in training so Mile Svilar will play in goal for a few games unless the international break denies him.
-- Taca de Portugal 3rd Round
Lineup - Svilar, T.Tavares*, Ferro, Alvaro (Valenti), N.Tavares, Almendra (D.Tavares), Camara, Pedrinho, Chiquinho, Cervi, Dyego Sousa (Resende) We stroll into the next round with an easy win over Mafra who are in the 2nd division. They did become only the 2nd team and the first team domestically to score against us this season though!
-- UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo (N.Tavares), Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius Yes we lost and yes we were completely outplayed but we gave them a tough match and frustratingly had a late equaliser disallowed.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez (Camara), Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius* A great win. Porto have been awful so far this season and are amazingly 12pts behind us now with a game in hand. Rafa was still **** despite me playing him in his other natural role while Florentino Luis finally did something of note by scoring the opener. That's 9 games played in the league and 9 clean sheets.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo*, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) After 9 games in the league without conceding we finally let one in here. Just as well we won!!! Nelson Semedo scored a wonder goal as he took the ball from within his own half and ran all the way up the field to beat the keeper.
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SUMMARY
I have to view this month as a great success as in our 6 games we had 5 of them away from home. Amazingly we only had 2 league games and they came right at the end of the month as we thumped both Porto and Vitoria Setubal which sees us top the table with just a 1pt lead.
We progressed in both domestic cups but in the Champions League we got, on paper, a great draw against Real Madrid before we narrowly lost to PSG. We still have work to do on that front.
Coluna won 10 league titles, 6 Portuguese Cups and 2 European Cups (in which he scored in both finals) while at Benfica. Born in Mozambique he went on to earn 57 caps for Portugal and scored 8 goals. He captained Benfica an astonishing 328 times and went on to have a brief spell at Lyon.
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NOVEMBER
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ferro (Alvaro), Dias, Grimaldo (N.Tavares), Luis, Camara, Zivkovic, Chiquinho, Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius I am pleased with this draw as we came from behind to get a point and I was without Ajer, Gabriel and Rodriguez.
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UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo (N.Tavares), Luis, Gabriel*, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) A huge win that gives us a chance of going through. It was a horrible match and it was decided when James Rodriguez converted a late penalty. It leaves us 3rd on the group on 5pts - level with Real Madrid.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, N.Tavares, Luis (Ferro), Gabriel (Camara), Zivkovic*, Rodriguez, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius A comfortable win. Carlos Vinicius is doing well in the league and got another 2 goals here while Zivkovic put in his first decent performance for a while.
Out came my backups and through we go. I gave Filipe Cruz his debut and he looks like a top player for the future. As does Diego Nascimento.
-- UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias (Ferro), Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Chiquinho, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa*) This was a must win game and we won it but only after I had made my substitutions. Dyego Sousa terrorised the Young Boys defence once he came on and grabbed 2 goals. We go into our final group game top of the group level on points with Real Madrid who we play next but PSG are lurking just 1pt behind.
At the very least we will have a Europa League spot after Christmas.
Our unbeaten start to the league season continues here and in the 13 league games we now have 11 clean sheets.
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SUMMARY
Another solid month. We had some big matches from our draw against Sporting Lisbon to beating PSG and Young Boys in the Champions League. In the league we have opened up a 6pt gap at the top of the table but Sporting Lisbon have a couple of games in hand. The fixture schedules in Portugal seems to be all over the place tbh.
Next month we have a huge match against Real Madrid. Any result could possibly take us through - even a defeat but it is incredibly hard to call.
All seems good but I am still incredibly frustrated at the performances of Rafa, Zivkovic and Luis - for the players of their quality they have been largely shocking. One other good bit of news is the board have agreed to expand the stadium to a capacity of just over 72,000.
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Just been catching up and had some excellent results in the champions league. Would be a massive upset to get out of that group Europa League might be better though for snatching a European Final spot in your first season
Coelho had 2 spells at Benfica and won many trophies including 8 league titles and 6 Portuguese Cups not to mention an individual award as the Portuguese Player of the Year in 1974. He won 64 caps for Portugal, scoring 6 times and upon his retirement he became a manager of several nations including Portugal.
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DECEMBER
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo*, Ajer (Ferro), Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic, Rodriguez (Camara), Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius An easy game againt an opponent down to 10 men. Ronaldo Camara scored his firts goal which is nice as he became both the clubs and the leagues youngest ever scorer. Rafa was **** again!
-- UEFA Champions League Group A
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez (Camara), Rafa (Cervi), Carlos Vinicius We get dumped out of the Champions League as coupled with our defeat here, PSG also won so we end the group in 3rd place and will play in the Europa League after Christmas. As ever my wingers were truly awful - I may have to act in January as they are seriously ******* me off.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo*, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel (Camara), Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) I warned Rafa after the Real madrid game that he was in danger of being dropped and he responded here by putting us in front. We were 2 up and cruising but then they pulled a goal back and we looked nervy until they had a man sent-off. Then we scored 2 great goals as Semedo finished from the corner of the box and then Camara powered one in from 25 yards.
I took the chance to play my backups as we were up against a 2nd division side. We won but only just.
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Allianz Cup 3rd Phase Group 3
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ferro, Alvaro, N.Tavares, Almendra*, Camara, Pedrinho, Chiquinho (Nascimento), Cervi (Embalo), Hurtado (Resende) My backups shone here as we finish the group with a fine victory. Nascimento and Resende are 2 16y/o prospects and they got their first goals for the club here with Resende becoming the clubs youngest ever scorer. Ferro missed a penalty for us too - dont know what he was doing taking it.
After the match it appeared that we broke selection rules by not playing 5 players who featured in our last 2 matches and therefor we received a £7,000 fine.
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SUMMARY
On the whole December was a decent month for us with one glaring exception - our elimination from the Champions League. Real Madrid beat us 2-0 and with PSG winning it means we finished in 3rd place and in the Europa League where we have been drawn against Dinamo of Croatia.
Domestically we extended our lead at the top of the league to 8pts and we progressed in both cups. In the Allianz Cup we will play 2nd division side Chaves in the semis while in the Portuguese Cup we have a mouth watering tie against FC Porto to look forward too.
Finally the preview of the youth intake told me that we have a golden genration on our way which sounds great - I just hope it delivers! Tbh I have so many quality youngsters that I have plenty to do to improve them. On that note my B side are leading the way in the 2nd division which is nice.
Just been catching up and had some excellent results in the champions league. Would be a massive upset to get out of that group Europa League might be better though for snatching a European Final spot in your first season
Was a bit gutting to go out - our draw against Young Boys at home and our failure to beat 9 man Real Madrid proved to be costly. The Europa League will be tough although if we went on to win it I wouldnt count it as breaking the curse - only the Champions League will shatter that!
Winner of 9 league titles and 6 cups, Sheu spent his entire career at Benfica and is the first player I have featured (going from the highest appearance maker in descending order) that I have never heard of. He won 24 caps for Portugal and scored once.
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JANUARY
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo*, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel (Camara), Zivkovic (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa)
This is why my team is so frustrating - my backups just thumped the same opposition 4-0 yet my first team couldnt find a way to beat them. Sure we had 39 attempts at goal and had an Ajer goal disallowed but this is simply not good enough.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias (Ferro), Grimaldo, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Zivkovic, Rodriguez*, Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa)
All of Rodriguez's goals this season so far has been from penalties which is extremely disappointing as he is much better than that. He is performing well though - I just need him to score from open play.
I aint taking it no more!!!!!! We lose our first domestic game of the season and despite being the better side in the first half we fell apart in the 2nd and we got dumped out of the cup. I will now scour the transfer market for improvements as Rafa, Zivkovic and Carlos Vinicius are just not performing at all.
We reach the final with our victory here. Dyego Sousa got the only goal of the game while David Tavares and Andre Almeida made their debuts. David Tavares was one of 3 Tavares' on the field for us and I have another in the B team!
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Allianz Cup Final
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel (Camara), Rafa, Chiquinho*, Everton, Carlos Vinicius
We win the Allianz Cup with a fine performance and victory against Sporting Lisbon. We raced into a 3 goal lead and never looked like throwing it away. Carlos Vinicius missed a 2nd half penalty which was the only downside. My new signing, Everton, made his debut but had a quiet game - I had to move Rafa to an unnatural position to the RW and he scored the opener.
This is the type of result and performance that I have been aiming for all season. Sure I was ****** off that we initially threw away a 2 goal lead but we responded by bagging another 4. Chiquinho was excellent while Everton netted his first goal for the club.
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SUMMARY
This month weirdly enough could prove to be the key month of the season. We won the Allianz Cup (Portugals version of a League Cup) by beating Sporting Lisbon 3-0 in the final and despite a shocking draw against Aves in the league we won our other games but our lead at the top is reduced to 6pts although we have 2 games in hand.
FC Porto dumped us out of the Taca de Portugal and that made me change things regarding my squad. I was sick fed up of Zivkovic and Rafa etc being pish so I went out and signed Everton from Gremio for £23m. I have seen him become great in other saves and I think he will be a huge star in Portuguese football - but then again I thought that about Rafa. The worrying thing about the Everton deal is that he insisted on a £51m release clause.
My only other signing was that of a youngster who I agreed to sign on a pre-contract but then paid the £95,000 to bring him in early. Isaac Lichadji came in from Marseille and he will go straight into the B team squad.
With the arrival of Everton I sold Cervi who somehow got a move to Arsenal and they paid £11m for his services. I am still predicted to fail the FFP regulations for the season though.
Unlucky to go out in the Champions League mate, drew a horrible group with PSG and Real Madrid. Well done beating PSG. Will definitely be better next year for the experience.
In the league, you are flying and look set to be on the way to the title in your first year. That should give you a good platform for next
Manuel Bento spent the best part of 20 years at the club and collected 10 league titles and 6 Portuguese Cups while at Benfica. He also won the Portuguese Player of the Year award in 1977. When he retired at the age of 44 he was the oldest player ever to appear in the Portuguese league. He won 63 caps for Portugal.
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FEBRUARY
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Rafa (Zivkovic), Chiquinho (Camara), Everton, Carlos Vinicius* Everton scored on his 2nd game in a row here but he has already fallen out with me as I failed to strengthen the squad in attacking areas at the end of the window. Patience dear boy lol. Apparently he is considering his options already and he hasn't been at the club 2 weeks yet!
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Rafa (Pedrinho), Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius We fell behind early on here but recovered to win. Semedo scored a cracking goal to equalise and Carlos Vinicius and Dias sealed things although we did concede again. Of course we are still unbeaten in the league this season.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo (T.Tavares), Ajer, Dias, N.Tavares, Luis, Gabriel (Almendra), Zivkovic*, Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) Not our greatest performance but at least it was a win. Andrija Zivkovic scored a stunning volley to put us ahead while Rodriguez netted yet another penalty.
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer (Ferro), Dias, Grimaldo, Luis (Almendra), Gabriel, Rafa (Zivkovic), Chiquinho, Everton, Carlos Vinicius Our excellent run continues - unbeaten in the league and now 7 games won in a row. Carlos Vinicius is in great form just now while Andrija Zivkovic has certainly responded to the arrival of Everton as he has started to make an impression when called upon.
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UEFA Europa League 1st Round 1st Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Rafa, Rodriguez (Chiquinho), Everton (Zivkovic), Carlos Vinicius*
This should be good enough for us to progress. Carlos Vinicius continued his fine form and Chiquinho also chipped in with a goal. I might take a chance and play my backups in the next leg.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ajer, Dias*, Grimaldo, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Zivkovic, Rodriguez (Chiquinho), Everton, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) At the start of this month Ruben Dias hadn't scored for us this season but his double here means he is now on 3. James Rodriguez missed a penalty here - the first time he has failed from the spot this season.
A fabulous free-kick from Andrija Zivkovic won us the match here. Dantas made his debut here for us - he is another top prospect.
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SUMMARY
We packed 8 games into a hectic February and we won them all so it was a perfect month. In the league we have a 12pt lead at the top and it is just a matter of time before we are crowned Champions tbh. In 24 league games we have amazingly only conceded 7 goals and kept 19 clean sheets!!!!
We also knocked out Dinamo in the Europa League but we have been given a tough draw against Arsenal in the next round.
Next month I will see the apparent golden generation that is coming my way in the youth intake!!!!!
Antonio Simoes 1961-75 447 apps, 72 goals Midfielder
Simoes was part of the European Cup winning Benfica side in 1961-62 and at 18 years and 4 months was the youngest ever winner at the time. He also won 10 league titles and 4 cups while with the club and he left to have various spells in America. He earned 46 Portugal caps and scored 3 goals.
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MARCH
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis*, Gabriel (Camara), Rafa, Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa)
Not one of our greatest performances but it is yet another win and of course yet another clean sheet. That's 9 goals for Rodriguez this season and all have been penalties.
Pathetic. Humiliating. ******* useless. To lose our unbeaten league record is one thing but to lose 4-0 to our biggest rivals is not on. We better respond against Arsenal in our next match! This result shows that there is still a lot of work to do in the summer.
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UEFA Europa League 2nd Round 1st Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo (N.Tavares), Ferro, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Rafa, Rodriguez (Camara), Everton*, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) We bounce back with a fantastic win against all the odds. Rafa put us in front but shortly afterwards Luis got sent-off so I went defensive to try and hold onto our 1 goal lead. In the 2nd half we went amazingly 2-0 up as Everton disposed the Arsenal defender on the half way line and ran through to score. They pulled a late goal back with a penalty but with 2 away goals I am confident for the home leg.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ferro, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Rafa (Zivkovic), Rodriguez*, Everton, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) A decent result and an important one considering our last league match. We fell behind but came back to lead 3-1 with Dias scoring the leveller, Rodriguez netting yet another penalty and Ferro scoring his 1st goal of the season.
-- UEFA Europa League 2nd Round 2nd Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ferro, Dias, Grimaldo, Camara, Gabriel (Almendra), Rafa (Pedrinho), Chiquinho, Everton, Carlos Vinicius*
WOW!!!!
This doesn't quite make amends for the FC Porto game but my players are back in my good books now after we thrash Arsenal. Carlos Vinicius scored a first half hat-trick and Everton put a bit of added gloss onto the scoreline. The fact that we were without Semedo, Ajer, Rodriguez and Luis makes this scoreline even more impressive.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ferro, Dias, Grimaldo, Camara*, Gabriel (Almendra), Rafa, Chiquinho, Everton (Pedrinho), Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) I rewarded my players from the Arsenal game with an appearance here - or I accidentally submitted my team before changing things lol - but we won it anyway and Ronaldo Camara scored a beauty. Chiquinho netted a penalty and that was that.
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SUMMARY
An interesting month with some big matches and on the whole it went well apart from one shocking result. The big news in the league was the fact we lost 4-0 away to FC Porto to end our unbeaten run since the start of the season and our lead is now cut down to 9pts. That performance was awful and I am gunning for revenge but having said that I was wanting revenge for them having dumped us out of the Portuguese Cup!!!
In the Europa League we were excellent as despite ourselves being down to 10 men we won 2-1 away to Arsenal and then in the 2nd leg we thrashed them 4-1 at home and we will play Wolves in the quarter-finals so will come up against their Portuguese contingent and a few ex Benfica players to boot!
Benfica's greatest ever player and one of the best of all time. Eusebio is the clubs top corer unsurprisingly (what a record!!!!) and won trophies galore while at the club including 11 league titles, 5 Portuguese cups and of course a European Cup in 1961-62. Individually he won many awards including the Ballon D'Or in 1965, Portuguese player of the year in 1970 and 1973 plus he was the first ever European golden boot winner in 1968 and he won it again shortly afterwards. He represented Portugal 64 times and scored 41 goals.
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APRIL
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ferro, Dias (Alvaro), Grimaldo, Camara, Gabriel, Rafa (Pedrinho), Chiquinho*, Everton (Zivkovic), Dyego Sousa I kept faith with some of my backup players here to rest players for the upcoming Wolves game and they got the win that qualifies us for next seasons Champions League. Our starting budget for next season though is only £11m!!!
-- UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final 1st Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares (N.Tavares), Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel, Rafa (Zivkovic), Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius* Carlos Vinicius loves the Europa League as since the first game we played in February he has now scored 7 goals in the competition with no league goals in between! This should be good enough to see us into the semis but it isnt all over yet.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Cruz, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo (N.Tavares), Luis (Almendra), Camara, Rafa (Zivkovic), Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius A poor result and performance. We took the lead and then barely threatened thereafter and were made to pay when Anzai's speculative shot from outside the area went in.
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UEFA Europa League Quarter-Final 2nd Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares (Semedo), Ajer, Dias*, Grimaldo, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Rafa, Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa) Into the semis we go. Ruben Dias scored the only goal of the game but this was a horrible, boring match.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, N.Tavares, Luis (Almendra), Camara, Zivkovic, Chiquinho (Nascimento), Rafa, Carlos Vinicius* We are now just 1pt away from winning the league title as Carlos Vinicius scored our first hat-trick of the season which is a bit of a surprise.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares, Ajer, Dias, N.Tavares, Luis (Almendra), Camara*, Zivkovic, Chiquinho (Nascimento), Rafa, Carlos Vinicius (Dyego Sousa)
CHAMPIONS!!!!!!!
We record back to back 4-0 wins to secure the title on a near perfect day with only a Carlos Vinicius penalty miss being a disappointment. Ronaldo Camara scored the first as he put in a man of the match performance while Agustin Almendra scored a screamer. I will play my backups in the final 2 league matches as I concentrate on the Europa League.
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UEFA Europa League Semi-Final 1st Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer (Ferro), Dias, Grimaldo, Luis, Gabriel (Camara), Rafa (Zivkovic), Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius* A fantastic result as we have one foot in the final. Carlos Vinicius got his customary Europa League goal and Everton chipped in with the 2nd. Sevilla were shocking which was a surprise considering they have basically owned the competition in the last 10 years.
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SUMMARY
April was a great month for us as we clinched the league title and progressed in the Europa League. We only had one disappointing result and that was the draw against Portimonense but otherwise we beat everyone who stood in our way and we clinched the title in fine style by beating a decent Braga side 4-0.
In the Europa League we managed to defeat Wolves home and away and then went on to beat Sevilla 2-0 in the first leg of the semi-final. Ajax are leading Lyon 1-0 in the other tie.
Credit also goes to my B team who won the Liga Pro (2nd division) for the first time and with 4 games to spare. Incredibly they haven't played half the players I would have wanted them too including my CB that I signed for £2.5m!!
Some housekeeping from last months post - I forgot to tell you about my youth intake. There was a decent looking RB from the Ivory Coast and an AMC but nobody to really shout out about.
Although he mainly played at right-back, Cavem also played in midfield and up front. He won 9 league titles, 5 Portuguese Cups and 2 European Cups while at Benfica and in the 1959 Portuguese Cup final he scored the only goal of the game against FC Porto after just 15secs - a competition record. He earned 18 caps for Portugal and scored 5 goals.
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MAY
Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares (Cruz), Ferro*, Alvaro, N.Tavares, Almendra, Camara, Zivkovic, Chiquinho (Nascimento), Embalo, Dyego Sousa (Hurtado) Meh - don't care. Nice run out for my backups. I might actually call up Embalo to the first team squad next season although he was poor here.
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UEFA Europa League Semi-Final 2nd Leg
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo (T.Tavares), Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo, Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Rafa (Zivkovic), Rodriguez, Everton, Carlos Vinicius
We reach the final of the Europa League!!!!
This was a crazy match. We took the lead in the 1st minute thanks to Carlos Vinicius' customary Europa League goal and although Rony Lopes equalised (a transfer target) we were in at half-time 3-1 up with an away goal and we were cruising. THen in the 2nd half they scored 2 quickfire goals and when Nolito netted their 4th it was game over - even more so when Rafa had a goal disallowed. However Tomas Tavares struck for us late on to take us through on away goals and there was even time for Carlos Vinicius to score again but that too was disallowed.
Ajax are waiting for us in the final - should be an even match.
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Lineup - Vlachodimos, T.Tavares (Cruz), Ferro*, Alvaro (Valenti), N.Tavares, Almendra, Camara, Zivkovic, Chiquinho (Nascimento), Embalo, Dyego Sousa How we didn't win this game I don't know. We battered them from pillar to post yet somehow we conceded 3 goals which takes our final tally for goals conceded to 18. Embalo had a goal disallowed which would have won it for us but Ferro seems to be on fire as he has 3 in 2 - not bad for a backup CB!!
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UEFA Europa League Final
Lineup - Vlachodimos, Semedo, Ajer, Dias, Grimaldo (N.Tavares), Luis (Camara), Gabriel, Rafa (Zivkovic), Rodriguez*, Everton, Carlos Vinicius
WE WIN THE EUROPA LEAGUE!!!!!
Now I don't rate this as breaking the Guttman curse as it is not the Champions League but we pick up a European trophy thanks to a double from James Rodriguez who amazingly came to me before the match complaining he wasn't starting enough!!!!
Even more amazingly he scored his first goal in open play this season in the final minute in the final match of the season and it won us the cup.
We were slightly the better team throughout and took the lead from a penalty and tbh they were never troubling us but they levelled and extra-time loomed large but then Nuno Tavares cut the ball back and Rodriguez side footed it into the far bottom corner to give us the win.
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SUMMARY
This month was all about the Europa League as with the league already won we could play our reserves and although we drew both games it was nice for my backup players to play 1st team games although I still expected us to win tbh.
In the Europa League we lost 4-2 to Sevilla to go through on away goals and while that sounds like a nervy affair we had 2 goals disallowed so we almost cruised it tbh lol although when we were 4-1 down I definitely wasnt thinking that.
We reached the final and a James Rodriguez double won it for us with the winner coming in the 94th minute and that was his first goal from open play amazingly enough.
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