AFC Bournemouth
Ahead of Sunday's match at Estadio da Luz, we speak to a Portuguese football expert for a lowdown on the Cherries' pre-season opponents.
The match is Bournemouth's first encounter of pre-season, while for Benfica it's a first run out at the home they also know as the Cathedral.
afcb.co.uk spoke with Tom Kundert, creator of the PortuGOAL English-language website and World Soccer's Portugal correspondant.
Give us a brief introduction as to where the Eagles are ahead of the match.
Benfica had a disastrous season last year, at the halfway stage they were seven points clear, without really playing that well, but they looked all set to win what would have been their sixth league title in seven years.
Then it all went disastrously wrong and they ended up losing the league to Porto – the first time in Portugal where a team has been that far clear but not won the title.
That led to the manager resigning, then leading to the one subject which has dominated the headlines in Portuguese football in recent months: the return of Jorge Jesus.
What is it about Jesus that made his return so highly anticipated?
He’s a very charismatic manager and was brilliant for Benfica during his first six-year spell. He really transformed the club, before that Porto were kings in Portugal, a period coinciding with Benfica having a disastrous time where they only won one league title in 15 years.
Jesus completely turned that around, and did it by making his team play brilliant attacking football. Now he’s back and people are very excited and hoping he can work his magic again.
The president’s up for re-election in October and people are putting two and two together and saying that’s the reason Jesus is back, because the team had been looking quite shaky before that.
Bringing back such a popular coach and backing him up with a lot of signings in the transfer market has transformed the squad, it’ll be interesting to see how they play with so many new players.
Of all the incomings, who do the Benfica fans most want a first glance of?
There’s no doubt about the player they’re most excited about bringing in, that’s Everton Cebolinha. He’s come from Gremio in Brazil and is a full international, playing the last few games for the Selecao. That tells you he’s a very strong player.
A lot of people in Portugal were surprised when Benfica were able to sign him, as with his reputation it was thought he might go straight to England or Spain.
Benfica got him, you have to be careful with what you watch on YouTube of course, but he appears to be an old-school Brazilian, full of tricks, fast, creative and when you look at his numbers they’re very impressive in terms of goals and assists.
He plays wide right or as a support striker, he’s one player that everyone is really looking forward to seeing.
How has pre-season started for the side?
They’ve only played a handful friendlies so far against the B team and lower league sides but have looked quite good so far, winning games with scorelines like 4-1 and 5-0. It’s still early days and there are still further transfers to be done by all accounts.
This is the first proper pre-season game if you like and at Estadio da Luz, without the fans unfortunately, but it will be quite interesting to watch with the side's first Champions League match coming soon.
People may have also read about the pursuit of Edinson Cavani, which just shows the ambition of the club at the moment, though that one was probably shooting a little bit above their wage structure and didn’t come off in the end.
There has been a lot written that Jesus is getting impatient and wants another two strikers, though it might now be too late for them to come in before the Bournemouth game.
Expectations seem very high for the club ahead of 2020/21...
Yes absolutely, there’s a quite a lot of pressure as well because it’s coincided with Sporting and Porto struggling. Porto have financial fair play issues so can’t buy anyone without selling first, leaving Benfica as massive favourites to win the league this coming season.
People are excited by the team and the football that Jesus will produce because his first spell at the club just wowed everyone in Portugal, building such an attacking team.
He’s a well-rounded coach, people talk about him being an attacking coach but when you look at it they had a very good defensive record as well.
He himself is quite a sight to see on the sidelines, pulling his flamboyant hair out, instructing his players and never still for one second. His teams are very dynamic and overpowering in some ways, always non-stop.
I’m sure a lot of people will be tuning into the game on Sunday to see what they have to look forward to this season.
To read more from Tom and about Portuguese football, head to the PortuGOAL website.
