The
2009–10 European football season was the
106th season of
Sport Lisboa e Benfica's existence and the club's
76th consecutive season in the top flight of
Portuguese football
Association football ( pt, futebol), the most popular sport in Portugal, has a long and storied history in the country, following its introduction in 1875 in cities such as Funchal, Lisbon, Porto and Coimbra by English merchants and Portuguese ...
. The season ran from 1 July 2009 to 30 June 2010; Benfica competed domestically in the
Primeira Liga
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, ...
,
Taça de Portugal and
Taça da Liga
The Taça da Liga (), known outside Portugal as Portuguese League Cup, is an annual football club competition organised by the Liga Portuguesa de Futebol Profissional (LPFP) for teams competing in the Primeira Liga and LigaPro, the top two tier ...
. The club also participated in the
UEFA Europa League after qualifying from the
competition's play-off round, which they had to play as a result of finishing third in the
previous season.
On 16 June 2009, Jesus replaced
Quique Sánchez Flores
Enrique "Quique" Sánchez Flores (; born 5 February 1965) is a Spanish former footballer who played as a right-back, currently manager of Getafe.
He began his professional career with Valencia in 1984, going on to amass La Liga totals of 304 ga ...
at the helm of Benfica. Jesus implemented a
4–1–3–2 formation, in which a winger,
Ramires, provided cover and assistance to the
defensive midfielder,
Javi García
Francisco Javier "Javi" García Fernández (; born 8 February 1987) is a Spanish former professional footballer who is an assistant manager for Benfica. A defensive midfielder by nature, he could also appear as a central defender.
He started ...
, and other winger,
Ángel Di María, conducted the
counterattacks
A counterattack is a tactic employed in response to an attack, with the term originating in "war games". The general objective is to negate or thwart the advantage gained by the enemy during attack, while the specific objectives typically seek ...
.
Pablo Aimar
Pablo César Aimar (born 3 November 1979) is an Argentine former professional Association football, footballer and current assistant coach of the Argentina national football team, Argentina national team.
Aimar played as an Midfielder#Attacking ...
, as an
attacking midfielder, distributed play and
Javier Saviola created space between lines for
Óscar Cardozo, Aimar and Di María.
This fast-paced, attractive football proved to be successful and in his first year Jesus led Benfica to the first division title after a five-year wait (only two league defeats, 78 goals scored), also reaching the quarter-finals in the Europa League, losing to
Liverpool on a 3–5 aggregate score (this would be the last match Benfica would lose in a run that lasted 27 games).
Benfica won their 32nd Primeira Liga and their second League Cup. They saw the definite breakthroughs of Ángel Di María,
David Luiz and
Fábio Coentrão
Fábio Alexandre da Silva Coentrão (; born 11 March 1988) is a Portuguese former professional footballer. Mainly a left-back, he also operated as a winger and occasionally as a defensive midfielder.
After starting playing professionally with ...
, while Óscar Cardozo had his best season yet, scoring 26 league goals. The team's only disappointments of the season were a 4–1 loss to Liverpool at
Anfield in the Europa League quarter-finals second leg, where
Fernando Torres hit two second-half goals to knock Benfica out of Europe, and an early exit at the Taça de Portugal.
Competitions
Pre-season friendlies
Regular season friendlies
Primeira Liga
League table
Results by round
Matches
Taça de Portugal
Taça da Liga
Group stage
Semi-finals
Final
UEFA Europa League
Play-off round
Group stage
Knockout phase
=Round of 32
=
=Round of 16
=
=Quarter-finals
=
Overall record
Player statistics
, -
! colspan="15" style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;", Goalkeepers
, -
! colspan="15" style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;", Defenders
, -
! colspan="15" style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;", Midfielders
, -
! colspan="15" style="background:#dcdcdc; text-align:center;", Strikers
Transfers
In
Summer
Winter
Spend : €32.4M
Out
Summer
Winter
: Transfer income: €6.83M
Overall transfer activity
Spending
: Summer: €25,300,000
: Winter: €7,100,000
: Total: €32,400,000
Income
: Summer: €6,730,000
: Winter: €100,000
: Total: €6,830,000
Expenditure
: Summer: €18,570,000
: Winter: €7,000,000
: Total: €25,570,000
References
Filmography
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:2009-10 S.L. Benfica season
S.L. Benfica seasons
Benfica
Portuguese football championship-winning seasons