As one of the most successful teams in Portuguese football, Sport Lisboa e Benfica or S. L. Benfica is showing spectacular performances throughout the team’s history. They’ve been through their won dark years, with financial problems clouding the team’s progress, but the team’s golden era is also very interesting to see.
Benfica’s golden era started in 1960, when they won the 1960 Championship or the Portuguese First Division. The next year, they won the same trophy and also won the European Champions’ Cup, breaking Barcelona’s and Real Madrid’s domination in 1961 and 1962. Since then, the team performed fantastically in both local and international competitions.
Benfica also reached three more European Champions’ Cup finals, bet they lost the match to Milan in 1963, Internazionale in 1965, and to Manchester United in 1968. Although they didn’t win the European Champions’ Cup, the team performances alone were spectacular nonetheless.
In 1968, Benfica was crowned the best European football team by a football publication France Football. The team’s success was indeed thanks to Eusébio da Silva Ferreira, a prominent striker who quickly became Benfica’s main motivator in the field.
The team continued this golden era all the way to the 1970s, although their appearances in European Champions Cup were not as brilliant. The won six more Championship trophies in 1971, ’72, ’73, ’75, ’76, and ’77. The team also reached the semi-final of European Cup of Champions against Ajax, only to be defeated by a single goal; it was a memorable match that caught European football fans’ attention.