THE VITALS:

Team: Benfica

Brand: Adidas

Era: 2016-17 (Used for the 2016 Supertaca Candido de Oliveira, 2016-17 Primeira Liga season and the 2017 Taca de Portugal Final)

Name/Number: -

CONDITION: EXCELLENT

This shirt looks almost brand new with the material and respective applications displaying little to no wear at all!

DIMENSIONS:

Size: Extra Large (XL)

Pit to Pit Measurement: 21 inches

Shirt Length: 29.5 inches

Made by Adidas in their range of shirts which they introduced in 2016; the dimensions of this shirt suggest that it could also fit someone who usually wears a size large shirt!

DESCRIPTION: 

Adidas would again beautifully integrate their seasonal template with Benfica’s classic red and white colours ahead of the 2016-17 season. In many ways, this shirt is truly the fluid successor to the 2015-16 home shirt. This season would be the first to wear the Radler sponsor on the back; replacing the Sagres sponsor which was so longer the previous incumbent. This shirt also uses a heat applied crest, and this shirt would be remembered fondly as ‘As Aguias’ won the Primeira Liga title for a 4^th successive season, as well as being worn in the 2016 Supertaca Candido de Oliveira and 2017 Taca de Portugal Final triumphs. This would be the final season at the club for Ederson while this would be the last Benfica home shirt to be donned by the likes of: Nelson Semedo, Victor Lindelof, Luka Jovic and Kostas Mitroglou!

THE SEASON:

Rui Vitoria’s debut season at the helm for Benfica would see him carry on the fine work that Jorge Jesus began, with Benfica successfully defending both the Primeira Liga and Taca de Portugal titles for a second time and would also reach the UEFA Champions League quarter final for the first time since 2006 where they were only narrowly eliminated by Bayern Munich!

As par the course now, many of Europe’s elite were admirers of Benfica’s rich talent pool and two of their most prized assets – Renato Sanches, Talisca and Nico Gaitan were sold to Bayern Munich, Besiktas and Atletico Madrid respectively. The club would ensure that the funds were invested back into the first team and arriving in the summer of 2016 would be: Franco Cervi, Kostas Mitroglou, Andre Carrillo, Guillermo Celis, Adrija Zivkovic, Oscar Benitez and Rafa Silva!

Benfica would end the 2015-16 season having won 19/20 of their league outings in 2016 and would bring their 12 match winning streak to 13 when they opened the 2016/17 season with a 2-0 away against Tondela on the opening day of the new season. Benfica’s incredible league form in 2016 would continue as the year drew to a close as they started the season by going unbeaten in their first 11 games extend the unbeaten run to 23 before losing 2-1 away to Martimo on 02/12/16. They would end the 2016 segment of the season 4 points clear of FC Porto at the top of the table, and their league record for 2016 would be 31 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in their 34 games played!

January 2017 would be unstable by their recent standards as they won just twice in their 4 outings that month. February however, would return to business as usual as they rattled off 6 straight wins and would go unbeaten for the rest of the season; winning the 2016-17 Primeira Liga title by 6 points to set a club record of 4 successive league titles!

Benfica’s season would begin by reclaiming the Supertaca Candido de Oliveira title when they defeated Braga on 07/08/16. Although their Taca de Liga quest would end at the semi-final stage when they were upset by Moreirense on 26/01/17, however, they would offset that by successfully retaining the Taca de Portugal when they defeated Vitoria de Guimaraes 2-1 on 28/05/17!

In Europe, Benfica would be drawn in Group B of the UEFA Champions League Group Stages alongside: Dynamo Kyiv, Besiktas and Napoli in a very intriguing group. Back to back wins over Dynamo Kyiv on match-day 3 and 4 would and a pair of draws with Besiktas would be enough to see them into the Last 16 – making it the first time the club had ever reached the knock-out stages of the Champions League in back-to-back seasons! Their next test would come against Borussia Dortmund in the Last 16, and after winning the 1^st Leg at home 1-0, they’d be overwhelmed 4-0 in the 2^nd Leg in a disappointing showing on 08/03/17.

The notable players that season were:

Luka Jovic, Kostas Mitroglou, Jonas, Raul Jimenez, Andre Horta, Andreas Samaris, Andre Carrillo, Eduardo Salvio, Rafa Silva, Franco Cervi, Pizzi, Adrija Zivkovic, Felipe Augusto, Ljubomir Fejsa, Lisandro Lopez, Alex Grimaldo, Luisao, Victor Lindelof, Eliseu, Jardel, Andre Almeida, Nelson Semedo, Ederson, Julio Cesar