Famalicao vs Benfica

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Benfica will start their attempt of regaining the Primeira Liga title with their first match against Famalicao at the Estadio Municipal 22 de Junho on Sunday evening.

The hosts last season finishing in the eighth place with 42 points on their tally while the visitors’ team was the runners up in the League, accruing 80 points, 10 points below Sporting Lisbon.


Famalicao completed a second season successively in the eighth place during the season 2023/2024 but they collected two points less than in the previous season, and was only two points behine the teams of the top six.

Of course, the main purpose will be to approach the European zone in the current season and they given a good preparation, having no defeats in six friendly games, including the victories over Casa Pia and Moreirense in the last days.

Dealing with Benfica is never an easy T Fama will however remember facing the eagles with a lot of fond memories especially from the last time the two sides met in this season’s match day 32 last season match when they stunned the hosts 2-0 on the’ home turf.

Still, the three points were enough to celebrate against the league giants per se and to make things extra sweet, the victory meant that Benfica could not win the league – 10 points behind Sporting, the Eagles had only two matches to play.

Side of Armando Evangelista won 6, draw 6 and lost 5 of their home matches last season; however, they were able to score only 21 goals on their ground which was the poorest record set by any team in top half of the table of last season.

Conversely, Benfica will most probably regard last season as a lost one, especially as they conceded the league trophy and came trophy-less after a semi-final loss in both domestic cups.

Benfica, on the other hand, will probably look back on the previous season with sadness since they were forced to concede the league championship and finished without a trophy after losing in the semifinals of both domestic cups.

The Eagles advanced to the round of eight in the Europa League and placed third in their Champions League group in Europe before falling to Marseille on penalties following a 2-2 stalemate in total.

In addition to being busy this summer trying to acquire players who can assist the team compete with Sporting, Roger Schmidt has also had to deal with the loss of Joao Neves, who was signed by PSG last week.

But Benfica has added another level of experience to the team by bringing in Renato Sanchez on loan and extending the contract of World Cup winner Angel Di Maria.

In their first game of the new season, Sporting easily defeated the visitors, so they will need to bounce back to avoid falling behind thus early in the season.

Lucas Calegari is the only player for Famalicao that has been listed as injured at the beginning of the new season. He is currently rehabilitating from an ankle injury he suffered during the preseason.

Gil Dias from Stuttgart, Rochinha from Kasimpasa, and Mario Gonzalez on loan from Los Angeles FC were all signed by Evangelista, and all three might make their debuts this weekend.

Due to injury, Benfica will begin the season without Tomas Araujo's services, and David Neres and Marcos Leonardo are listed as doubtfuls.

Paulo Bernardo left over the winter to play for Celtic, one of the biggest teams in the Scottish Premiership. Leandro Barreiro, Florentino Luis, and maybe Sanchez will be in charge of the engine room going forward.