The 2010–11 season was
Sport Lisboa e Benfica
Sport Lisboa e Benfica (), commonly known as Benfica, is a professional football club based in Lisbon, Portugal, that competes in the Primeira Liga, the top flight of Portuguese football.
Founded on 28 February 1904 as ''Sport Lisboa'', Ben ...
's
107th season in existence and the club's
77th consecutive season in the top flight of Portuguese football. It involved Benfica competing 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
The Taça de Portugal (; "Cup of Portugal") is an annual association football competition and the premier knockout tournament in Portuguese football. For sponsorship reasons, it has been known as Taça de Portugal Placard since the 2015–16 seaso ...
,
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 ...
and the group stage of the
UEFA Champions League
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 ...
. Benfica qualified for the Champions League by winning the
previous Primeira Liga.
In Jesus' second season, the loss of
Ángel Di María
Ángel Fabián Di María (born 14 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays for club Juventus and the Argentina national team. He can play as either a winger or attacking midfielder.
Di María began his career with R ...
and
Ramires
Ramires Santos do Nascimento (; born 24 March 1987), known as Ramires, is a Brazilian former professional footballer. A midfielder, he was comfortable playing in either the centre or right midfielder position. He normally played as a box-to-b ...
was devastating to the team. He moved
Carlos Martins to the right wing as a substitute to Ramires.
Nicolás Gaitán
Osvaldo Fabián Nicolás "Nico" Gaitán (; born 23 February 1988) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder for Portuguese Primeira Liga club Paços de Ferreira.
A product of Boca Juniors, he joined Benfica in ...
freshly landed in Europe to replace Di María. These changes had the immediate effect of breaking the high-pressure, high-tempo football of the previous years. By late September, Benfica was already trailing nine points from
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 ...
, a difference it never recovered.
In December 2010,
Eduardo Salvio
Eduardo Antonio Salvio (born 13 July 1990) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a winger for Liga MX club UNAM.
Salvio started his career with Lanús in 2008. After moving to Europe in 2010, he won two UEFA Europa League, with ...
replaced Carlos Martins and Benfica changed to a more common
4–4–2 formation, with two out-and-out wingers to provide width, a pure
attacking midfielder
A midfielder is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As #Cent ...
combined with a
defensive midfielder
A midfielder is an outfield position in association football.
Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...
. That decision left to a good winning streak and Jesus surpassed the record held by
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 ...
's
1972–73 team, with 16 consecutive wins, including a 2–0 win at
VfB Stuttgart
Verein für Bewegungsspiele Stuttgart 1893 e. V., commonly known as VfB Stuttgart (), is a German sports club based in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The club's football team is currently part of Germany's first division, the Bundesliga. VfB Stu ...
for
the season's Europa League (4–1 on aggregate), Benfica's first ever victory in
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. As fatigue started to influence the most used players, in the only competitions the club were actively competing, Benfica was unable to maintain a 2–0 lead against Porto, and lost the chance to go the Portuguese Cup final. A 1–0 loss in
Braga
Braga ( , ; cel-x-proto, Bracara) is a city and a municipality, capital of the northwestern Portuguese district of Braga and of the historical and cultural Minho Province. Braga Municipality has a resident population of 193,333 inhabitants (in ...
prevented Benfica from reaching the Europa League final. Domestically, Benfica won their third League Cup, beating
Paços de Ferreira
Paços de Ferreira () is a city in the Porto District, in the north of Portugal. The population of the city in 2011 was 7491, while its municipality had 56,340 inhabitants, in an area of 70.99 km².
Sometimes referred to as the ''Capital do ...
.
In January, the Portuguese winter transfer record fee was broken when
David Luiz
David Luiz Moreira Marinho (born 22 April 1987) is a Brazilian professional footballer who plays for Flamengo. Primarily a centre back, he can also be deployed as a defensive midfielder.
After starting out at Vitoria, David Luiz moved to Ben ...
went to
Chelsea
Chelsea or Chelsey may refer to:
Places Australia
* Chelsea, Victoria
Canada
* Chelsea, Nova Scotia
* Chelsea, Quebec
United Kingdom
* Chelsea, London, an area of London, bounded to the south by the River Thames
** Chelsea (UK Parliament consti ...
for £21 million. The record was later surpassed on 31 January 2014 by another Benfica player, when
Rodrigo
Rodrigo is a Spanish, Portuguese and Italian name derived from the Germanic name ''Roderick'' (Gothic ''*Hroþareiks'', via Latinized ''Rodericus'' or ''Rudericus''), given specifically in reference to either King Roderic (d. 712), the last Vis ...
's economic rights were sold to an investment firm for €30 million.
Competitions
Pre-season
Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira
Primeira Liga
League table
Results by round
Matches
Taça de Portugal
Semi-finals
Taça da Liga
Group stage
Knockout phase
UEFA Champions League
Group stage
UEFA Europa League
Knockout phase
=Round of 32
=
=Round of 16
=
=Quarter-finals
=
=Semi-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
*1.Includes
2010 Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira.
*2.Includes
2010-11 UEFA Champions League
Transfers
In
Summer
Winter
Spend : €37,950,000
Out
Summer
Winter
: Transfer income: €76,800,000
Overall transfer activity
Spending
: Summer: €34,700,000
: Winter: €3,250,000
: Total: €37,950,000
Income
: Summer: €50,500,000
: Winter: €26,300,000
: Total: €76,800,000
Expenditure
: Summer: €15,800,000
: Winter: €23,050,000
: Total: €38,850,000
Notes and references
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benfica Season 2010-11
2010-11
Portuguese football clubs 2010–11 season
2010–11 UEFA Champions League participants seasons
2010–11 UEFA Europa League participants seasons