1994–95 S.L. Benfica season

Benfica

1994–95 season
President	Manuel Damásio
Head coach	Artur Jorge
Stadium	Estádio da Luz
Primeira Divisão	3rd
Taça de Portugal	Quarter-finals
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira	Runners-up
UEFA Champions League	Quarter-finals
Top goalscorer	League: Isaías (14) All: Edílson (17)
Highest home attendance	60,000 vs Porto (2 October 1994)
Lowest home attendance	10,000 vs Marinhense (4 December 1994)
Home colours
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The 1994–95 European football season was the 91st season of Sport Lisboa e Benfica's existence and the club's 61st consecutive season in both Portuguese football and UEFA competitions. The season ran from 1 July 1994 to 30 June 1995; Benfica competed domestically in the Primeira Divisão and the Taça de Portugal. The club also participated in the UEFA Champions League as a result of winning the previous league.

After winning their latest title, Benfica made significant changes to its squad and management. It sacked Toni and replaced him with Artur Jorge. In the transfer market, the club was far more active than the past seasons. It signed over a dozen players with Michel Preud'homme, Dimas Teixeira and Paulo Bento becoming regulars. They were joined by two loans, Claudio Caniggia and Edílson, both would be the top-scorers of the team. In the departures, fan favourites like Rui Costa or Schwarz were sold, while others like Rui Àguas, Kulkov, Silvino and Hernâni Neves were released.

On the pitch, Benfica started the season by losing the 1993 Supertaça to Porto. In the Primeira Divisão, they started winning, but quickly lost their plot. In the Champions League, Jorge led Benfica to the knockout stage after coming first in their group. As the season progress, Benfica performance stabilised and starting early December, they rack up over ten wins in a row. This allowed them to close distances to leader Porto, and progress to the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup.

In late February, in the decisive stage of the season, Benfica slipped again in the Primeira Divisão, and were eliminated in the other competitions. Til the end, Benfica could only win about half of their remaining fourteen match-days, finishing in third place, 15 points behind Porto. In their last match of the season, they lost another Supertaça to Porto.

Season summary[]

In the post-season of a title winning year, Benfica made the surprise choice of releasing Toni, who had been closely associated with the managerial position since assuming the assistant position to Sven-Göran Eriksson in 1982.^[1] To replace him, the club chose Artur Jorge.^[1][2] The Portuguese manager was known for the eight titles won at FC Porto, notoriously, the 1986–87 European Cup, plus had just led Paris Saint-Germain to their second league title in history, in the past season. With the club still in financial despair, they were forced to sell important players to gather funds. Rising star, Rui Costa was sold to Fiorentina, reportedly because they offer more money than Barcelona.^[1][3] Schwarz joined Arsenal for 1.8 million pounds,^[4] and others left the club, either for disciplinary reasons as with Kulkov and Yuran,^[5] or old age, like Rui Àguas.

The club sought reinforcements mostly indoors, like Paulo Bento and Dimas, with a few arriving from abroad, with Preud'Homme and Caniggia gathering the most expectations.^[1] The season began with the replay match of the 1993 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, ending in another loss on the penalty shoot-out, similar to the 1991 edition. On the league campaign, the situation was better, as Benfica racked up three straight wins; however a loss against União de Leiria on 18 September, put the team behind on the title race by two points.^[6]

Benfica could not regain any point back over October, ending the month with a four points disadvantage to leader Sporting.^[6] Although the domestically, the season was not going according to the club best hopes; in Europe, the track record was much better, with a spot on the next phase secured with one match to spare.^[7] Already approaching New Year, the odds in the renewing the title race were further diminished, with a loss in Alvalade expanding the gap to the leader by a point.^[8]

The first months of 1995 were the teams best throughout the season, as they reduced the distance to the league leader, Porto, to only three points by Match-day 20 after an eight-game winning streak.^[8] However, in the next two months, at the deciding part of the season, the club dropped more points to Leiria, and then lost four times in six games, re-opening the gap to Porto to twelve points, finishing any hope of renewing the title.^[9] In the other competitions, the prospect was the same, Benfica was knock-out of the Champions League by A.C. Milan,^[7] and on the Taça de Portugal, by Vitória Setúbal.^[10]

The final games of the season were only spent securing a place in the next year European competitions, having the bitter taste of losing both games against Sporting, for a fourth time in history, the first since 1954.^[1] The Derby de Lisboa on the 30 of April was also controversial because of the irregular dismissal of Caniggia by referee Jorge Coroado; causing the match to be repeated on 14 July (2–0 win for Benfica), and then annulled on FIFA order.^[1] After finishing the league fifteen points behind them, as they regained the title back, Benfica met Porto on the replay of the 1994 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira in Paris, which was left unresolved from early in the season. The northerners won one-nil and took home their eight Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira.^[7]

Competitions[]

  Win   Draw   Loss   Postponed

Overall record[]

Competition	First match	Last match	Record
			G	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Win %	Source
Primeira Divisão	21 August 1994	28 May 1995	34	21	5	8	60	30	+30	061.76	[11]
Taça de Portugal	4 December 1994	12 April 1995	5	3	1	1	18	3	+15	060.00	[11]
UEFA Champions League	14 September 1994	15 March 1995	8	3	4	1	9	7	+2	037.50	[11]
Supertaça	17 August 1994	20 June 1995	4	0	3	1	1	3	−2	000.00	[11]
Total			51	27	13	11	90	44	+46	052.94

Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira[]

1993 Edition[]

1994 Edition[]

Primeira Divisão[]

League table[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Porto (C)	34	29	4	1	73	15	+58	62	Qualification to Champions League group stage
2	Sporting CP	34	23	9	2	59	21	+38	55	Qualification to Cup Winners' Cup first round[a]
3	Benfica	34	21	5	8	61	28	+33	47	Qualification to UEFA Cup first round
4	Vitória de Guimarães	34	16	10	8	54	43	+11	42
5	Farense	34	16	5	13	44	38	+6	37

Results by round[]

Matches[]

Taça de Portugal[]

UEFA Champions League[]

Group Stage[]

Group C[]

Pos	Team v t	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Benfica	6	3	3	0	9	5	+4	9	Advance to knockout stage
2	Hajduk Split	6	2	2	2	5	7	−2	6
3	Steaua București	6	1	3	2	7	6	+1	5
4	Anderlecht	6	0	4	2	4	7	−3	4

Knockout stage[]

Quarter-finals[]

Friendlies[]

Player statistics[]

The squad for the season consisted of the players listed in the tables below, as well as staff member Artur Jorge(manager) and Zoran Filipovic (assistant manager).^[14][11]

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 1994–95 season via transfer, with more details in the following section.

No.	Pos	Nat	Player	Total		Primeira Liga		Taça de Portugal		UEFA Champions League		Supertaça
				Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1‡	GK	BEL	Michel Preud'homme	47	-41	31	-28	5	-3	8	-7	3	-3
2	DF	POR	António Veloso	37	0	25	0	2	0	7	0	3	0
2‡	DF	BRA	Paulo Pereira	18	1	13	1	3	0	1	0	1	0
3	DF	POR	Hélder Cristóvão	33	4	21	3	2	0	7	1	3	0
4	DF	BRA	William	19	0	13	0	2	0	3	0	1	0
5	DF	BRA	Carlos Mozer	23	0	17	0	2	0	4	0	0	0
5	DF	POR	Paulo Madeira	28	0	17	0	4	0	3	0	4	0
6	DF	POR	Abel Xavier	33	3	22	3	2	0	5	0	4	0
6‡	MF	POR	Paulo Bento	29	0	20	0	5	0	3	0	1	0
6‡	MF	POR	José Tavares	34	6	20	2	3	2	7	1	4	1
7‡	MF	POR	Amaral	14	1	11	1	2	0	0	0	1	0
7	MF	POR	Vítor Paneira	38	5	24	3	4	1	8	0	2	1
8	MF	POR	João Vieira Pinto	39	6	24	4	5	1	7	1	3	0
9‡	FW	BRA	Edílson	31	17	23	9	5	7	2	1	1	0
9‡	FW	ARG	Claudio Caniggia	34	16	24	8	3	5	7	3	0	0
10‡	MF	POR	Nelo	36	0	23	0	3	0	7	0	3	0
11	MF	BRA	Isaías	33	15	23	14	1	0	7	1	2	0
11	FW	POR	César Brito	11	1	6	0	0	0	2	0	3	1
12	GK	POR	Neno	5	-3	4	-2	0	0	0	0	1	-1
13‡	DF	POR	Dimas Teixeira	45	0	30	0	4	0	8	0	3	0
15‡	MF	CRO	Mario Stanić	15	5	13	5	1	0	0	0	1	0
16‡	FW	BRA	Clóvis	2	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0
17	DF	POR	Pedro Henriques	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0
18	FW	POR	Edgar Pacheco	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
19‡	MF	POR	Rui Esteves	2	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
22	DF	POR	Daniel Kenedy	35	3	22	2	4	1	6	0	3	0
24‡	FW	ANG	Akwá	3	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
25‡	DF	BRA	Paulão	7	1	4	1	1	0	2	0	0	0

Transfers[]

^[15]

In[]

Entry date	Position	Player	From club
July 1994	GK	Michel Preud'homme	Mechelen
July 1994	LB	Dimas Teixeira	Vitória Guimarães
July 1994	DM	Paulo Bento
July 1994	CM	José Tavares	Boavista
July 1994	CM	Nelo
July 1994	CB	Paulo Madeira	Marítimo
July 1994	RW	Amaral	Sporting
July 1994	AM	Mario Stanić	Sporting Gijón
July 1994	CM	Rui Esteves	Vitória Setúbal
July 1994	CB	Paulão	Grêmio
July 1994	FW	Akwá	Nacional de Benguela
August 1994	ST	Clóvis	Guarani
January 1995	CB	Paulo Pereira	Porto

In by loan[]

Entry date	Position	Player	From club	Return date
July 1994	ST	Claudio Caniggia	Roma	30 June 1995
July 1994	ST	Edílson	Palmeiras	30 June 1995

Out[]

Exit date	Position	Player	To club
July 1994	GK	Pedro Roma	Académica
July 1994	GK	Paulo Santos	Penafiel
July 1994	CB	Jovo Simanić	Boavista
July 1994	CB	Nuno Afonso	Belenenses
July 1994	AM	Aleksandr Mostovoi	Strasbourg
July 1994	LB	Stefan Schwarz	Arsenal
July 1994	AM	Rui Costa	Fiorentina
July 1994	ST	Rui Àguas	Estrela Amadora
July 1994	DM	Vasili Kulkov	Porto
July 1994	ST	Sergei Yuran
July 1994	GK	Silvino Louro	Vitória Setúbal
July 1994	CM	Hernâni Neves
July 1994	RB	Abel Silva
August 1994	ST	Clóvis

Out by loan[]

Exit date	Position	Player	To club	Return date
July 1994	ST	Aílton Delfino	São Paulo	30 June 1995
January 95	CM	Rui Esteves	Birmingham City	30 June 1995

References[]

Bibliography

• Tovar, Rui Miguel (2012). Almanaque do Benfica [Benfica Almanac]. Portugal: Lua de Papel. ISBN 978-989-23-2087-8.