Sport Lisboa e Benfica
Also written as Benfica, SL Benfica.
The club
Benfica were founded on 28 February 1904 as Sport Lisboa, and took their present name in 1908 after merging with Grupo Sport Benfica. They have played at the Estadio da Luz since 2003, when the current ground replaced the 1954 stadium of the same name on an adjacent site. Capacity is 68,100. The stadium hosted the final of UEFA Euro 2004 and the Champions League finals of 2014 and 2020. The club are known as As Aguias, the Eagles, after the bird on the crest, and as Os Encarnados, the Reds, after the shirt. Supporters are benfiquistas. The motto is E pluribus unum.
Recent seasons
Benfica finished third in the Primeira Liga in 2021/22, won the title in 2022/23 for the thirty-eighth time, and were third again in both 2023/24 and 2024/25.
The 2025/26 season was the strangest of the run. Benfica went through the thirty-four league matches unbeaten and still finished third. They took 80 points from 23 wins and 11 draws, scoring 74 and conceding 25. Porto won the title on 88 points and Sporting were second on 82. Braga were fourth on 59, so the gap between the top three and the rest of the division was very wide.
Honours and landmarks
The sources read here credit Benfica with 88 major trophies. That includes 38 Primeira Liga titles, a Portuguese record, 26 Taca de Portugal, also a record, 8 Taca da Liga, 10 Supertaca Candido de Oliveira and 3 Campeonato de Portugal. Internationally they won the Latin Cup in 1950 and the European Cup in 1961 and 1962. They have reached ten European finals, which the sources read here place seventh among UEFA clubs.
Notable scorelines
An all-time record win and record defeat were not confirmed from the sources read here. What is recorded are two heavy European defeats: 7-0 against Celta de Vigo in 1999 and 5-0 at Basel in 2017. The results the club is defined by are the two European Cup finals won in 1961 and 1962, and the eight European finals lost since.
European record
Benfica won the European Cup in 1961, beating Barcelona 3-2, and retained it in 1962 with a 5-3 win over Real Madrid, both under Bela Guttmann. Every European final since has been lost. They lost the 1963 final 1-2 to AC Milan, the 1965 final 0-1 to Internazionale in Milan on 27 May 1965, Jair scoring on 43 minutes, the 1968 final 1-4 to Manchester United, the 1988 final on penalties to PSV Eindhoven after a goalless draw, and the 1990 final 0-1 to AC Milan. They lost the 1983 UEFA Cup final to Anderlecht and the 2013 Europa League final 1-2 to Chelsea. The 2014 Europa League final against Sevilla in Turin on 14 May 2014 finished goalless after extra time, the first final in the competition's history to do so, and Sevilla won the shootout 4-2. The pattern is popularly attributed to the Guttmann curse, said to date from the coach's departure in 1962 and to run for a hundred years.
In 2026/27 Benfica are not in the Champions League. Third place in the Primeira Liga put them into the Europa League second qualifying round, where they were beaten 2-1 at St. Gallen on 23 July 2026, Rafa Silva replying on 44 minutes to goals from Aliou Balde and Gaal. The return at the Luz on 30 July finished 5-0, Vangelis Pavlidis scoring on 11, 55, 66 and 74 minutes, the last from the penalty spot, and Clement Lenglet adding the fifth on 81 minutes. Benfica went through 6-2.
Quotes
No directly quoted material was confirmed from the sources read here. The club's English-language news pages returned 404 and the UEFA match page returned 403, so nothing verbatim could be checked.
Right now (2026/27)
Marco Silva is the head coach, his appointment announced on 9 June 2026. The summer was busy in both directions, with the sources read here putting incoming spending at about 59.35m euros and disclosed outgoing fees at about 95.5m euros.
In came Clement Lenglet on loan from Atletico Madrid on 30 June, Enzo Barrenechea from Aston Villa for 12m euros on 1 July, Heorhiy Sudakov from Shakhtar Donetsk for 20.25m euros on 1 July, Jakub Kaminski from 1. FC Koln for 17m euros on 7 July, Jhon Duran on loan from Al-Nassr with a 6.1m euro option on 20 July, and Gabriel Indio from Athletic of Belo Horizonte for 4m euros on 26 July. Out went Florentino Luis to Burnley for 24m euros on 12 June, Orkun Kokcu to Besiktas for 25m euros on 1 July, Antonio Silva to Bournemouth for 25m euros on 1 August and Sidny Cabral to Trabzonspor for 7m euros, along with several younger players sold or loaned.
Pre-season brought a 1-2 defeat to Flamengo on 11 July, a 2-0 win over Villarreal on 17 July and a 5-1 win over Belenenses on 24 July. The league campaign opened with a 2-2 draw away to Academico de Viseu on 9 August 2026, Pavlidis and Gianluca Prestianni scoring.
The tie they are in right now is the Europa League third qualifying round against Heart of Midlothian. The first leg was played at the Estadio da Luz on 6 August 2026 in front of 60,776 and Benfica won 6-1. Rafa Silva scored after three minutes, Araujo added a second on 23, Pavlidis converted a penalty on 42, Prestianni made it four on 59, Duran scored on 87 and Fredrik Schjelderup completed it in the fourth minute of stoppage time. Hearts pulled one back through a second-half goal; the scorer was not confirmed from the sources read here. The second leg is at Tynecastle Park on 13 August 2026.
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.L._Benfica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_S.L._Benfica_season https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025%E2%80%9326_Primeira_Liga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026%E2%80%9327_UEFA_Europa_League_qualifying
Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.