The 1971–72 season was Sport Lisboa e Benfica's 68th season in existence and the club's 38th consecutive season in the top flight of Portuguese football, covering the period from 1 July 1971 to 30 June 1972. Benfica competed domestically in the

Primeira Divisão The Primeira Liga (; English: Premier League, also written as Liga Portugal 1), also known as Liga Portugal Bwin for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Portuguese football league system. Organised and supervised by the Liga Portugal, ...

and the Taça de Portugal, and participated in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

after winning the previous league. After recovering the title in the past season, Hagan remained for second season. He strengthened his team by adding

Vítor Baptista Vítor Manuel Ferreira Baptista (18 October 1948 – 1 January 1999) was a Portuguese footballer. Mainly a second striker, he could also operate as an attacking midfielder. During a 15-year professional career, which was marred by several pro ...

, Artur Correia and Rui Rodrigues. To off-set, José Torres departed the club, alongside others, such as Jorge Calado and

Jacinto Santos Jacinto José Martins Godinho Santos (born 28 January 1941) is a former Portuguese footballer who played as defender. Football career Santos gained 5 caps and scored 2 goals for Portugal. He made his debut 13 November 1966 in Lisbon against ...

. Benfica began their league campaign by beating

Porto Porto or Oporto () is the second-largest city in Portugal, the capital of the Porto District, and one of the Iberian Peninsula's major urban areas. Porto city proper, which is the entire municipality of Porto, is small compared to its metropol ...

in Estádio das Antas, only to be stopped a week later by CUF. They responded with a string of consecutive wins that propelled them into first place on 31 October. They drew again in the following week, now with Boavista and were caught at the top. In the European Cup, Benfica eliminated Wacker in the first round and CSKA Sofia in the second. Domestically, in November, Benfica began a nine-match winning run that allowed them to open a comfortable lead at the top. They drew again in February but that did not stop their momentum, and their continued collecting consecutive wins, five more, until their experienced their first league defeat on 26 March, at the hands of

Barreirense Futebol Clube Barreirense is a Portuguese sports club founded on 11 April 1911. The main sports are football and basketball. In both sports, the club has represented Portugal in European competitions. In basketball, the club won 2 national champ ...

. In the European Cup, Benfica faced

Feyenoord Feyenoord Rotterdam () is a Dutch professional football club in Rotterdam, which plays in the Eredivisie, the top tier in Dutch football. Founded as Wilhelmina in 1908, the club changed to various names before settling on being called after its ...

in the quarter-finals, beating them 5–2 on aggregate but were stopped in the semi-finals by Ajax. Afterwards, Benfica sealed their 19th league title and won their sixth

double A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * Th ...

after beating Sporting in the Taça de Portugal final

Season summary

Benfica started the new season as reigning Primeira Divisão holders after they recovered that honour in 1970–71. English manager

Jimmy Hagan James Hagan (21 January 1918 – 26 February 1998) was an English football player and manager. He played between 1938 and 1958 for Sheffield United and once for England. As manager he had his greatest successes with S.L. Benfica in the early 1 ...

began his second season in charge, still with José Augusto as his assistant. In the transfer window, Benfica's major signings were

for the offence and Artur Correia and Rui Rodrigues for the defence. Historic player José Torres departed the club for

Vitória de Setúbal Vitoria or Vitória may refer to : People * Francisco de Vitoria (c. 1483–1546), a Spanish Renaissance theologian * Alberto Vitoria (1956–2010), Spanish footballer * Rui Vitória (born 1970), Portuguese retired footballer * Steven Vitória (b ...

in the deal involving Vítor Baptista. Other departures included Jorge Calado and

. The pre-season began on 20 July with medical tests, and the first preparation game was on 31 July with

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Afterwards, Benfica went on a tour for England, where they played Arsenal again, among other teams. In late August, Benfica had a second tour, now in Italy and competed in the

Ramón de Carranza Trophy The Ramón de Carranza Trophy ( es, Trofeo Ramón de Carranza) is a pre-season football tournament organised by Cádiz City Hall, in memory of its former mayor, Ramón de Carranza – after whom the Cádiz F.C. stadium used to be named as well. ...

in Spain. They concluded the preparations by winning the

Taça de Honra Taça de Honra (Honour Cup) is a Portuguese friendly football tournament played between teams of the Lisbon Football Association (AFL). It is the third oldest competition in Portugal after the championships of Lisbon and Porto. The format has ...

against

Belenenses Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses, commonly known as Os Belenenses (), is a Portuguese sports club best known for its football team. Founded in 1919, it is one of the oldest Portuguese sports clubs. It is based in the 25,000-seat Estádio do Reste ...

on 8 September. The season began on 12 September with visit to Estádio das Antas to play

. Benfica won 3–1 with goals from Eusébio and Artur Jorge. Three days later, Benfica started their

campaign with a 4–0 win against Wacker. On the 19, Benfica dropped their first points in the league after a surprising 1–1 draw with CUF. That left them in fourth place, one-point behind leaders Vitória de Setúbal and Sporting. On 26 September, Benfica defeated Vitória de Setúbal away and pass them on the league table, placing them in third, one-less than leader Sporting. The month closed with another victory in the European Cup, for a 7–1 aggregate win against Wacker. In October, Benfica won all of his league matches but only reached first place on the 31 after a home win against

União de Tomar União Futebol Comércio e Indústria de Tomar, or more commonly União de Tomar, is a Portuguese association football club formed on 4 May 1914 and based in the city of Tomar.CSKA Sofia for the second round, beating them 2–1 on aggregate and qualifying for the quarter-finals. On 7 November, Benfica played Boavista on the road and drew 2–2 and were therefore caught in first place by Sporting. That situation was short lived as Benfica began a winning streak that lasted until February. Nine consecutive wins, including a 3–0 win in Estádio de Alvalade against Sporting, allowed Benfica to quickly build a comfortable lead. On match-day 12, the lead already stood at three-points, and Benfica lapped the first half of the Primeira Divisão with a five more points than second-place, Vitória de Setúbal. They began the second part of the season by beating Porto in the Clássico, but two-weeks later, they were finally stopped in the home draw to Vitória de Setúbal. Benfica responded well and kept on winning, increasing their lead to eight-points by match-day 23 after five consecutive wins. In the European Cup, on 8 March, the team was defeated in first leg of the quarter-finals by

. Benfica complained of referee Kunze as

António Simões António Simões da Costa (; born 14 December 1943), known as Simões, is a Portuguese former footballer who played as a left winger. He spent 14 professional seasons with Benfica, playing 449 official games and scoring 72 goals. In the late ...

described: "I never thought I would find a referee like this. Dishonest is all I can say about him.". On 22 March, Benfica received Feyenoord and won 5–1. With the game in 2–1 on the 80th minute, which qualified Feyenoord; Benfica scored three goals in the last ten minutes to progress to the semi-finals. The win was seen as a revenge because Ernst Happel had repeatedly labelled Benfica as an inferior team. Four days later, Benfica lost for the first time in the Primeira Divisão. On match-day 24,

beat Benfica by 1–0 and prevented their goal of finishing the league undefeated. Afterwards, Eusébio said that the game against Feyenoord could not serve as an excuse. Benfica entered in April still in all competitions and their first match was the semi-finals of the European Cup. Facing another Dutch team, Ajax from

Johan Cruyff Hendrik Johannes Cruijff (, internationally known as Johan Cruyff; 25 April 1947 – 24 March 2016) was a Dutch professional football player and manager. As a player, he won the Ballon d'Or three times, in 1971, 1973 and 1974. Cruyff was a ...

, Benfica was defeated in Amsterdam by 1–0. In the home reception to Ajax, Benfica attempted to qualify for their sixth final, but drew 0–0 and were eliminated. Hagan's tactics were blamed by the press for the elimination, while

Jaime Graça Jaime da Silva Graça (; 30 January 1942 – 28 February 2012) was a Portuguese football midfielder and coach. Club career Born in Setúbal, Graça made his professional – and Primeira Liga – debut with local Vitória Futebol Clube, appe ...

targeted the referee for annulling a clean goal for Benfica. The team finished the month by playing two matches for the Taça de Portugal. On 23 April, they defeated

Cova da Piedade Cova da Piedade is a former civil parish in the municipality of Almada, Lisbon metropolitan area, Portugal. In 2013, the parish merged into the new parish Almada, Cova da Piedade, Pragal e Cacilhas. The population in 2011 was 19,904, in an area of ...

by 6–3 for the quarter-finals and on 30, they thrashed Porto by 6–0 in the semi-finals. They ensured their fourth consecutive final and were meeting Sporting in the Taça de Portugal final, repeating the same teams of the last three finals. The Primeira Divisão resumed on 7 May, with Benfica beating Académica de Coimbra by 3–1, thus confirming their 19th league title. With three matches still to go, Benfica tied the season 1960–61 for the club record of earliest match-day to win the league. They finished the campaign with 55 points in 60 possible and Artur Jorge was Bola de Prata for league top-scorer with 27 goals. The season ended on 4 June with the Taça de Portugal final where Benfica narrowly beat Sporting by 3–2. Benfica scored first by Eusébio on the 20th minute, but Sporting responded with two goals in the second half. Eusébio scored again to level the game on 2 goals on the 69th minute, requiring the need of extra-time, where on the 117th minute, he scored another to seal the win. It was Eusébio's first hat-trick in a Taça de Portugal final. Benfica had won another league and cup double, their six

Competitions

Overall record

Primeira Divisão

League table

Results by round

Matches

Taça de Portugal

European Cup

First round

Second round

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Friendlies

Player statistics

The squad for the season consisted of the players listed in the tables below, as well as staff member Jimmy Hagan (manager), José Augusto (assistant manager), Fernando Neves (Director of Football).

Transfers

In

Out

Out by loan

Notes

References

Bibliography * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:1971-72 S.L. Benfica season S.L. Benfica seasons Benfica Portuguese football championship-winning seasons