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After a period of extensive dominance by FC Porto in national football in the 1990s and 2000s, Benfica managed to share the stage with the Blue and White rival. In the last 11 years, the Reds have even won more championships than FC Porto (six against five) and between 2013/14 and 2016/17 they had the hegemony of Portuguese football, with a tetra unprecedented in the club’s history.
However, the arrival of Sérgio Conceição at FC Porto not only put the dragons back on the title track, but also caused an unusual drought in the recent history of the Lisbon rival.
Last Wednesday’s defeat with FC Porto meant that Benfica no longer held any national title: Liga, Taça de Portugal, Taça da Liga and Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira.
A scenario that is far from unusual, but that has only been repeated three times in the last 12 years of the eagles: more specifically since the conquest of the League Cup in 2008 under the command of Quique Flores.
In 2013, the victory of Sp. Braga in the League Cup meant that the national titles were shared between the Minho team, FC Porto (national champion and holder of the Super Cup) and Académica, which at the end of the season would be awarded by V Guimarães as the holder of the Portuguese Cup.
From then until 2018, the Reds were the owners and lords of at least one national trophy, having even been in possession of all four at the same time: it happened in 2014 with the conquest of the Super Cup after the League Cup, League and Portuguese Cup with Jorge Jesus. .
As now, the victory of FC Porto in the 2018 Super Cup brought Benfica the only trophy that still had to be defended: in August of that year, the Dragons joined the championship in the Super Cup, while the Portuguese Cup was was left for the Desp. The birds and the League Cup for Sporting.
