Project Portugal

@Aaron yeah on penalties is always gutting especially because we missed a penalty in the 19th minute as well!

World Cup Finals Draw

Group A:
Russia
Costa Rica
England
Ghana

Group B:
Brazil
Denmark
Mexico
South Korea

Group C
Argentina
Ireland
Romania
South Africa

Group D
Chile
Guinea
Turkey
U.S.A

Group E
Belgium
Iran
Italy
Ivory Coast

Group F
Ecuador
Germany
Japan
Portugal

Group G
Australia
Croatia
France
Nigeria

Group H
Czech Rebublic
Jamaica
Uruguay
Wales

Some very interesting ties there especially for the Portuguese, Germany & Ecuador will definitely be two games you don't want to miss. Reigning European Champions Portugal will be going into the tournament with a lot of expectations on their shoulders, the brilliant young side will be hoping to better their 2014 campaign where they were knocked out in the Group Stages.

Tough group, Germany will be the big test of the tie but lets be honest if you don't get through you need sacking

Nice work in the Champions League, very comfortable in that as well as the World Cup Qualification group. Other than Germany, that group is fairly straight forward but Japan could cause a shock or two.

Shoya Nakajima (Portimonense) £3m
Ibourahima Baldé (Sampdoria) £775k


Eduardo Salvio (Guangzhou Hengda) £15.75m
Xadas (Stoke) Loan
Tiago Dantas (Arouca) Loan
Gonçalo Rodrigues (Oliveirense) Loan
Duk (Arsenal) £2.4m
Ibourahima Baldé (Oliveirense) Loan

Smash that yeah
cheers x

Some great deals in the transfer window and a decent knockout round draw...
The future is looking great for Benfica at least

After breezing through their Champions League group, Benfica were drawn against CSKA Moscow a side that Benfica really should be beating and they did.

1st Leg (A): 1-0 Jonas
2nd Leg (H): 2-0 Jonas & Shoya Nakajima

Quarter Finals

Of all teams Benfica could have drawn, Barcelona was the one they wanted to avoid. Unfortunately for Benfica they of course drew Barcelona, can they do the impossible?

1st Leg (H): 3-1 Jonas, Andrija Zivkovic & Pizzi
2nd Leg (A): 1-0 Haris Seferovic

Remarkable! How did Benfica mange to pull that one off? Despite only having 45% possession and half the amount of efforts on target in that second leg compared to the home side, Benfica managed to go to the Nou Camp and keep a clean sheet, what a performance!

Semi Final draw



Surely they can't defy the odds and get past Real Madrid and advance to their first Champions League final in 28 years? We'll have to wait and see!

Semi Finals:

1st Leg: 2-0 Shoya Nakajima & Andrija Zivkovic
2nd Leg: 6-0.

Despite an absolute heroic performance in the first leg Benfica crashed out 6-2 on aggregate after Real Madrid showed why they're the Champions of Europe during that sensational second leg performance.

Wow never realised you beat Barca! How typical of Real Madrid to give you all that hope and then throw you off a bridge

Well you had a good run, just a shame with the way it ended.

League table:


Strong showing from Benfica this season winning the league pretty comfortably in the end. Despite performing poor in both domestic cups, the run in Europe has probably saved the managers job.

Stand out performances this season:
2-1 over Monaco in the Champions League group stages
3-0 win over Sporting Lisbon
3-0 aggregate win over CSKA Moscow in the Last 16
4-1 Aggregate win over Barcelona in the 1/8 finals.
3-1 win away to Porto in the Premier League

Top Goalscorer:
Jonas

Player of the season:
Jonas

Signing of the season:
Shoya Nakajima

Awesome season mate, doing well so far

Results


Transfers

Joel Campball (Free) Arsenal
Marcos Llorente (Free) Real Madrid
Carlos Izquierdoz (Free) CD Santos Laguna
Moise Kean (Juventus) £11.25m
Predrag Rajkovic (Maccabi Tel-Aviv) £5m
Gianluca Lapadula (AC Milan) £13m
Walter Kannemann (Gremio) £7.75m
Aarón (Espanyol) £10.5m
Dominik Kohr (Bayer Leverkusen) £4.8m
Ismaily (Shakhtar Donetsk) £13.5m
Andreu Fontàs (PSG) £4.5m


Haris Seferovic (Everton) £12.5m
Alex Grimaldo (Chelsea) £40m(£58m)
Talisca (Hoffenheim) £40m
Ruben Dias (Chelsea) £31m
Ljubomir Fejsa (Juventus) £25m
Bryan Cristante (West Ham) £12m
André Horta (West Ham) £6m
Filip Krovinovic (Stuttgart) £10m
Lisandro López (Real Betis) £4m
João Carvalho (Las Palmas) £1.5m
Pawel Dawidowicz (Barnsley) £1m
Salvador Agra (Atlético Pamplona) £1m
Cristian Arango (Zaragoza) £1.3m
Odysseas Vlachodimos (Napoli) £800k
Adel Taarabt (Sheffield Wednesday) £1.3m
André Carrillo (Brentford) £1.2m
Jonas (Napoli)
Óscar Benítez (Leganés)
Dani Olmo (Las Palmas) Loan
Ibourahima Baldé (Huelva) Loan
João Teixeira (Boavista) Loan
Duarte Valente (Chaves) Loan
Diogo Gonçalves (Vit. Guimarães) Loan
Jorge Rojas (Free agent) Released
Ponck (Eibar) Loan

I rate those signings, especially Fontas for such a bargain fee from PSG. Unlucky in the World Cup, although France are a top side and it was always going to be difficult to edge past their quality.

Group A:
Paris-Saint Germain
FC Koln
S.S.C Napoli
Olympiacos

Group B:
SL Benfica
Zenit
Athletic Bilbao
AA Gent

Group C:
Bayer Leverkusen
Manchester United
Olympique Lyon
FK Austria Wien

Group D:
Arsenal
FC Barcelona
Shaktar
Inter Milan

Group E:
A.C Milan
Chelsea
CSKA Moscow
F.C. Copenhagen

Group F:
Juventus
Manchester City
Red Bull Leipzig
Sparta Praque

Group G:
Real Madrid
AS Monaco
Galatasaray
Spartak Moscow

Group H
Atletico Madrid
FC Bayern Munich
FC Red Bull Salzburg
Dinamo Kiev