1983–84 S.L. Benfica season

Benfica

1983–84 season
President	Fernando Martins
Head coach	Sven-Göran Eriksson
Stadium	Estádio da Luz
Primeira Divisão	1st
Taça de Portugal	Round of 16
European Cup	Quarter-finals
Supertaça	Runners-up
Iberian Cup	Winners
Top goalscorer	League: Nené (21) All: Nené (30)
Home colours
← 1982–83 1984–85 →

The 1983–84 season was Sport Lisboa e Benfica's 80th season in existence and the club's 50th consecutive season in the top flight of Portuguese football, covering the period from 1 July 1983 to 30 June 1984. Benfica competed domestically in the Primeira Divisão, Taça de Portugal and the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, and participated in the European Cup after winning the previous league. They also played in the Iberian Cup with the La Liga winners, Athletic Bilbao.

In the second year of Eriksson at Benfica, he lost João Alves and Frederico Rosa but hired António Oliveira and Michael Manniche. Benfica started the season by winning the Portuguese Cup final of the past season and the Iberian Cup. In the league, Benfica started strong until their drop points in October. A home win against Porto propelled them into first place, which they never lost. Twelve consecutive wins followed until they were stopped in February. In March, Benfica was knocked out of Europe and lost for the first time in the league. They reacted with five wins and a draw in the next month, before losing for a second time in late April. In May, Benfica confirmed their 26th league title, as Eriksson departed the club in June.

Season summary

Benfica entered the new season having won the league, and reached the Portuguese Cup final and the UEFA Cup final.^[1][2] Due to conflict between Porto and the Portuguese Football Federation, the final for the Taça de Portugal did not take place and was postponed.^[3] During the transfer window, Benfica lost João Alves and Frederico Rosa, who opted not to renew their contracts.^[4][5] New signings included centre-back, António Oliveira and striker, Michael Manniche.^[6][7] The latter replaced Cláudio Adão, who stayed just one month in the club.^[8] The pre-season began on 17 July, with medical tests, followed by roughly two weeks of training sessions.^[9] Benfica made their presentation game to the fans on 31 July with Coventry City, and competed in North America, with Tecos and Toronto Blizzard.^[10][11][12] The pre-season closed with the Lisbon International Tournament, which they won.^[13] On 10 August, it was confirmed that the Portuguese Cup final of the past season would be played on the 21, at Estádio das Antas.^[14] The first official game was the Iberian Cup with the La Liga winners, Athletic Bilbao.^[15] In a competition sponsored by the Portuguese Football Federation and the Royal Spanish Football Federation, that joined the Primeira Divisão and La Liga Champions in a two-legged Super cup.^[15]

Benfica first visited the San Mamés Stadium on the 17, losing 2–1.^[15] A week later, they received Bilbao at home and won by 3–1, thus keeping the trophy.^[16] Between that, Benfica played the Portuguese Cup final with Porto, winning one-nil with a goal from Carlos Manuel.^[17] The league campaign started in the best of terms, with four consecutive wins, while in the European Cup, Benfica eliminated Linfield in the first round.^[18][19] In October, they dropped the first points, in a draw with Braga, which left the club in second, a point shy of the leader Porto, their next opponent.^[18] In the Clássico, Benfica beat his rival Porto and assumed first place.^[18] Later in the month, Benfica defeated Olympiacos in the second round of the European Cup, qualifying for the quarter-final.^[2] In November and December, Benfica won all their league matches, but lost the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira to Porto.^[20]

Benfica kept on winning in the Primeira Divisão in January, lapping the first part of league with a three-point lead.^[21] However they suffered a set-back in the Taça de Portugal, losing 2–1 in Estádio de Alvalade being eliminated by Sporting.^[22] In February, Benfica lost points again in the league after twelve consecutive wins.^[18] March was even more troublesome because the team was knocked-out of the European Cup by Liverpool,^[23] while in the league, Porto gave them their first league loss all season.^[18] Still, in the following month, Benfica won five games and draw one, allowing them to keep the three point lead over Porto.^[18] On 29 April, Benfica unexpectedly lost 4–1 with Vitória de Guimarães.^[18] The loss did not cause major damage because Porto had also lost points, so the distance was only cut to two points.^[18] The very next match-day, the Derby de Lisboa with Sporting, Benfica drew one-all but still celebrated their 26th league title, due to Porto having lost on the same day.^[24][18] Against an opponent that broke the record for the fewest goals conceded in the history of the Primeira Divisão and had won all of their matches at home, Benfica responded with more goals scored, and a better record in away games, only losing six points there all season.^[25] Nené with 21 goals in 26 goals came in second place in the Bola de Prata, because he had played in more games, but oddly, with fewer minutes in overall.^[26] In June, Sven-Göran Eriksson announced his departure to Roma, having won back-to-back league titles in his two-year stint in Portugal.^[27][25][18]

Competitions

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Overall record

Competition	First match	Last match	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %	Source
Primeira Divisão	28 August 1983	13 May 1984	30	24	4	2	86	22	+64	080.00	[28]
Taça de Portugal	6 November 1983	29 January 1984	4	3	0	1	14	3	+11	075.00	[28]
European Cup	14 September 1983	21 March 1984	6	3	0	3	10	8	+2	050.00	[28]
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira	8 December 1983	14 December 1983	2	0	1	1	1	2	−1	000.00	[28]
Iberian Cup	17 August 1983	24 August 1983	2	1	0	1	4	3	+1	050.00	[16]
Total			44	31	5	8	115	38	+77	070.45

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira

Iberian Cup

Primeira Divisão

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Benfica (C)	30	24	4	2	86	22	+64	52	Qualification to European Cup first round
2	Porto	30	22	5	3	65	9	+56	49	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup first round[a]
3	Sporting CP	30	19	4	7	58	24	+34	42	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
4	Braga	30	15	7	8	40	32	+8	37
5	Vitória de Setúbal	30	13	8	9	43	28	+15	34

Results by round

Matches

Taça de Portugal

1982–83 Edition

1983–84 Edition

European Cup

First round

Second round

Quarter-final

Friendlies

Player statistics

The squad for the season consisted of the players listed in the tables below, as well as staff member Sven-Goran Eriksson (manager), Toni (assistant manager), Eusébio (assistant manager), Júlio Borges (Director of Football), Amilcar Miranda (Doctor).^[9]

Note 1: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Note 2: Players with squad numbers marked ‡ joined the club during the 1983-84 season via transfer, with more details in the following section.

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Primeira Divisão		Taça de Portugal		European Cup		Supertaça		Iberian Cup
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK		Manuel Bento	43	0	29	0	4	0	6	0	2	0	2	0
2	DF		Minervino Pietra	39	3	27	3	3	0	5	0	2	0	2	0
2	DF		António Veloso	16	0	12	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	2	0
3‡	DF		António Oliveira	36	1	24	1	4	0	4	0	2	0	2	0
3	DF		Humberto Coelho	3	1	2	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	DF		Álvaro Magalhães	44	2	30	1	4	1	6	0	2	0	2	0
4	DF		Samuel Quina	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	DF		Alberto Bastos Lopes	6	0	5	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
5	DF		António Bastos Lopes	41	0	28	0	3	0	6	0	2	0	2	0
6	MF		José Luís	41	4	29	4	4	0	4	0	2	0	2	0
6	MF		Carlos Manuel	42	7	28	5	4	2	6	0	2	0	2	0
7	FW		Nené	38	30	26	21	3	4	5	2	2	0	2	3
8	MF		Glenn Strömberg	38	6	25	3	3	1	6	2	2	0	2	0
8‡	FW		Michael Manniche	33	16	21	11	4	3	6	2	1	0	1	0
9	FW		Zoran Filipovic	16	9	8	7	0	0	5	1	1	0	2	1
9	FW		Paulo Padinha	5	0	2	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	0
10	MF		Fernando Chalana	33	7	23	7	4	0	4	0	2	0	0	0
11	MF		Diamantino Miranda	42	26	29	19	3	3	6	3	2	1	2	0
11	MF		Shéu	38	2	27	2	4	0	3	0	2	0	2	0
12	GK		Delgado	3	0	2	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Transfers

In

Entry date	Position	Player	From club	Fee	Ref
22 July 1983	DF	António Oliveira	Marítimo	Undisclosed	[6]
22 July 1983	FW	Cláudio Adão	Al Ain	Free	[6]
24 August 1983	FW	Michael Manniche	Hvidovre	Undisclosed	[7]
24 August 1983	GK	Neno	Barreirense	Undisclosed	[7]

Out

Entry date	Position	Player	From club	Fee	Ref
15 July 1983	MF	João Alves	Boavista	Free	[4]
19 July 1983	DF	Frederico Rosa	Boavista	Free	[5]
24 August 1983	MF	Carlos Manuel II	Rio Ave	Free	[7]
30 August 1983	FW	Cláudio Adão	Flamengo	Free	[8]

Out by loan

Exit date	Position	Player	To club	Return date	Ref
20 July 1983	FW	Fernando Folha	Varzim	30 June 1984	[35]
24 August 1983	GK	Neno	Barreirense	30 June 1984	[36]

References

Bibliography

• Tovar, Rui Miguel (2012). Almanaque do Benfica. Portugal: Lua de Papel. ISBN 978-989-23-2087-8.
• Miguéns, Alberto (2005). 100 anos 100 troféus. Portugal: Prime Books. ISBN 972-8820-34-8.
• Quidnovi, Redacção (2004). Sport Lisboa e Benfica: 100 Gloriosos anos;As Provas Nacionais 2. Portugal: Quidnovi. ISBN 989-554-103-1.
• Simões, António (1994). História de 50 anos do Desporto Português. Portugal. {{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)