S.L. Benfica B Explained

Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B" (pronounced as /pt/), commonly known as Benfica B, is a Portuguese professional football team based in Seixal. Founded in 1999, dissolved in 2006, and restarted in 2012, it is the reserve team of Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. They play in the Liga Portugal 2, holding home matches at Benfica Campus' main pitch.

During the 2012–13 season, Benfica B played home matches at the Estádio da Luz until February, when they moved to Estádio da Tapadinha to prevent excessive wear of the stadium's grass.^[1] In 2013–14, they permanently moved to their own training ground, capable of receiving professional league matches.

As a reserve team, Benfica B cannot play in the same division as the club's main team, thus being ineligible for promotion to the Primeira Liga. Moreover, they cannot enter domestic cup competitions such as the Taça de Portugal and Taça da Liga.

Since 2018–19, Benfica have an under-23 team playing in Liga Revelação, a competition for players who left the under-19s but who are not ready to join or regularly play for the first-team.^[2]

History

As Benfica sought a way to provide playing time for their youth and reserve players, they created a B team in 1999. The team officially started competing in the 1999–2000 season, with their first match played away against Portimonense S.C. (2–2) in late August.^[3] After three seasons in the Portuguese Second Division, they suffered relegation to the Terceira Divisão, where they would spend three years, before achieving promotion to the Portuguese Second Division in 2005. In May of the following year, the board of directors extinguished the side, which returned to activity shortly after as part of the Liga Intercalar. As part of this competition, the team's best league finish was a second place, behind Estoril B, in the South Zone of the 2010–11 season.

Before the end of the 2011–12 football season in Portugal, seven Primeira Liga clubs announced their interest in creating a reserve team to fill the six vacancies available in the Segunda Liga (now Liga Portugal 2) for the 2012–13 campaign.^[4] Of those seven clubs, six were selected to take part in the competition: Benfica, Braga, Marítimo, Porto, Sporting CP and Vitória de Guimarães.^[5]

LPFP, who organize the professional football tiers in Portugal, announced that the clubs would have to pay €50,000 to register themselves at the league in order to compete in the upcoming season.^[6] In addition, LPFP also required them to follow new rules regarding player selection, in which each B team must have a squad with a minimum of ten players formed at the club's academy and with an age between 15 and 21 years, and a maximum of three players above 23 years old. LPFP also decided that reserve teams are unable to compete in cup competitions and to gain promotion to the Primeira Liga due to the possibility of playing against their club's first team.

In late May 2012, it was officially announced that the B teams of six Primeira Liga clubs would compete in the 2012–13 Segunda Liga, a decision that increased the number of teams from 16 to 22 and the number of matches from 30 to 42.^[7]

In 2014, Benfica B were invited to play in the first Premier League International Cup. On 29 May 2015, they played a friendly against F.C. United of Manchester in Broadhurst Park's official opening match.^{[8] [9]} On 26 May 2019, they played a practice match against Liverpool in Marbella, Spain, five days before the latter's Champions League final.^[10]

Players

Current squad

^{[11] [12]} }

Out on loan

Coaching staff

Position	Name
Head coach	Nélson Veríssimo[13]
Assistant coaches	Marco Pimenta Jorge Cordeiro
Goalkeeper coach	Paulo Marques
Analyst coach	Pedro Pitacas
Analyst assistant coach	Rúben Damazio
Personal trainers (Benfica LAB)	Tiago Vaz Duarte Carvalho Records and statistics Season-to-season record Season Top scorer Goals 1999–2000 III 13th 38 14 6 18 53 49 48 Cláudio Oeiras 11 [14] 2000–2001 III 9th 38 14 11 13 58 57 57 Jorge Cordeiro 16 [15] 2001–2002 III 18th 38 11 11 16 35 42 44 Jorge Ribeiro 5 2002–2003 IV 3rd 34 14 14 6 47 25 56 [16] 2003–2004 IV 5th 34 15 8 11 63 48 53 2004–2005 IV 1st 34 21 9 4 71 29 72 2005–2006 III 11th 30 11 8 11 40 40 41 Vasco Firmino 5 [17] 2012–2013 II 7th 42 15 17 10 71 54 62 Miguel Rosa 17 2013–2014 II 5th 42 20 10 12 77 56 70 Funes Mori 13 2014–2015 II 6th 46 22 11 13 81 60 77 Rui Fonte 17 2015–2016 II 19th 46 15 10 21 59 64 55 Sancidino Silva 6 2016–2017 II 4th 42 18 9 15 56 58 63 Heriberto Tavares 11 2017–2018 II 13th 38 14 7 17 54 60 49 Heriberto Tavares 14 [18] 2018–2019 II 4th 34 15 7 12 47 42 52 Chris Willock 11 [19] 2019–2020 II 24 7 7 10 31 35 28 Daniel dos Anjos 8 [20] 2020–2021 II 8th 34 12 8 14 53 43 44 Gonçalo Ramos Henrique Araújo 11 [21] 2021–2022 II 5th 34 17 6 11 61 44 57 Henrique Araújo 14 [22] 2022–2023 II 15th 34 10 8 16 52 58 38 Henrique Pereira 9 [23] 2023–2024 II 8th 34 12 9 13 48 48 45 Cauê 7 2024–2025 II 4th 34 15 10 9 53 38 55 Gustavo Varela 11 bgcolor=gold Champions Relegated Managerial statistics As of match played 27 May 2025. Only competitive matches are counted, including those in the Premier League International Cup. Name From To Honours Alan Murray 1999 November 1999 [24] José Morais November 1999 2001 [25] António Veloso 9 June 2001 2002 [26] Carlos Gomes 2002 July 2004 [27] João Santos 2004 2006 2004–05 Terceira Divisão [28] Luís Norton de Matos 4 May 2012 30 May 2013 [29] Hélder Cristóvão 3 July 2013[30] 12 May 2018 [31] Bruno Lage 1 July 2018[32] 3 January 2019 [33] Nélson Veríssimo (caretaker) 3 January 2019 15 January 2019 [34] Renato Paiva 15 January 2019 25 December 2020 Nélson Veríssimo 25 December 2020 28 December 2021 Paulo Mateus (caretaker) 28 December 2021 28 December 2021 António Oliveira 5 January 2022 13 May 2022 Luís Castro 2 June 2022 8 June 2023 Nélson Veríssimo 6 July 2023 Present Competitive record in U21 Premier League International Cup As of December 2025. Season Round Opponent Match Result 2014–15 Premier League International Cup Schalke 04 1–0 Manchester City 1–3 Leicester City 0–2 2015–16 Premier League International Cup Celtic 2–1 Chelsea 3–0 Liverpool FC 2–0 Porto 0–1 2016–17 Premier League International Cup Derby County 2–0 Sunderland 1–2 PSV Eindhoven 0–0 2017–18 Premier League International Cup Villarreal CF 2–3 West Ham United 2–0 Tottenham Hotspur 3–3 2018–19 Premier League International Cup Everton FC 0–2 Brighton & Hove Albion 0–2 FC Bayern Munich 1–0 2019–20 Premier League International Cup Hertha BSC 2–1 Newcastle United 1–1 Blackburn Rovers 2–1 Swansea City Suspended due to COVID-19 2023–24 Premier League International Cup Liverpool FC 1–1 Crystal Palace 1–2 Fulham FC 1–3 Everton FC 1–2 2024–25 Premier League International Cup West Ham United 2–2 Blackburn Rovers 1–1 Middlesbrough FC 1–0 Sunderland 1–2 2025–26 Premier League International Cup Brighton & Hove Albion 1–1 Nottingham Forest 1–1 Chelsea 6–2 Newcastle United 5–0 Honours Terceira Divisão Winners (1): 2004–05 Under-23s Current squad [35] Coaching staff Position Name Head coach Paulo Lopes Assistant coaches Pedro Valido Paulo Mateus Goalkeeper coach Gonçalo Reduto Analyst coach Rodolfo Fernandes Analyst assistant coach José Marques Personal trainers (Benfica LAB) Luke Garcia Honours Taça Revelação Winners (1): 2024–25 External links

Notes and References

1. Web site: Benfica B muda-se para a Tapadinha. Maisfutebol. 24 February 2019. 25 February 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190225171746/https://maisfutebol.iol.pt/superliga-geral/benfica-tapadinha-atletico-portimonense-ii-liga-maisfutebol/1424267-1676.html. dead.
2. News: Pereira. David. 17 August 2018. Liga Revelação estreia este sábado. Sabe como funciona?. Liga Revelação debuts this Saturday. Do you know how it works?. pt. Diário de Notícias. 4 September 2023.
3. "Despertador encarnado tocou tarde" A Bola, 30 August 1999
4. News: Sete clubes interessados nas seis vagas para equipas B . Seven clubs interested for the six vacancies for B teams . Relvado . 17 February 2012 . 9 June 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20140420022036/http://relvado.sapo.pt/2-liga/sete-clubes-interessados-nas-seis-vagas-para-equipas-b-350876 . 20 April 2014 .
5. News: Equipas B de FC Porto, Benfica e Sporting confirmadas. B teams of FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting have been confirmed. Relvado. 28 May 2012. 9 June 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20140420022624/http://relvado.sapo.pt/2-liga/equipas-b-fc-porto-benfica-sporting-confirmadas-413161. 20 April 2014.
6. News: Equipas B custam 50 mil euros de inscrição . B teams' registration costs €50,000 . O Jogo . 21 May 2012 . 9 June 2012 . 7 August 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170807121939/https://www.ojogo.pt/futebol/2a-liga/noticias/interior/equipas-b-custam-50-mil-euros-de-inscricao-2535391.html . dead .
7. News: Liga: seis clubes inscreveram a equipa "B". League: six clubs register for a B team. Maisfutebol. 28 May 2012. 9 June 2012. 31 May 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120531010959/http://www.maisfutebol.iol.pt/fcporto/liga-equipas-b-liga-de-honra-porto-sporting-benfica/1351480-1304.html. dead.
8. News: FC United of Manchester open new stadium against Benfica... and show what football fans can achieve. Aaron Flanagan. Daily Mirror. 2 June 2015.
9. Web site: FC United 0 Benfica 1: Match report of official opening of new Broadhurst Park stadium. Ben Collins. 29 May 2015. Manchester Evening News. 2 June 2015.
10. News: Chegodaev. Andrey. 26 May 2019. Liverpool beat Benfica B before return from Marbella training camp. Tribuna. 27 May 2019. 27 May 2019. https://web.archive.org/web/20190527190639/https://tribuna.com/en/liverpoolfc/news/3383036/. dead.
11. Web site: Plantel. S.L. Benfica. pt. Squad. 11 December 2024.
12. Web site: Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Futebol, SAD B. Liga Portugal. 29 July 2023.
13. News: 6 July 2023. Experience and Benfiquista DNA with an eye to the future!. S.L. Benfica. 6 July 2023.
14. Web site: Squad 1999–2000. ForaDeJogo. 24 December 2016.
15. Web site: Squad 2000–2001. ForaDeJogo. 24 December 2016.
16. Web site: Portugal - Table of Honor. Soccer Library. 28, 30, 32.
17. Web site: Plantel 2005–2006. ForaDeJogo. 24 December 2016.
18. https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/liga/estatisticas/topmarcadores/20172018/ledmanligapro Top Scorers
19. https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/liga/estatisticas/topmarcadores/20182019/ledmanligapro Top Scorers
20. https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/liga/estatisticas/topmarcadores/20192020/ligapro Top Scorers
21. https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/liga/estatisticas/topmarcadores/20202021/ligaportugalsabseg Top Scorers
22. https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/liga/estatisticas/topmarcadores/20212022/ligaportugalsabseg Top Scorers
23. https://www.ligaportugal.pt/en/liga/estatisticas/topmarcadores/20222023/ligaportugalsabseg Top Scorers
24. Web site: Alan Murray. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
25. Web site: José Morais. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
26. Web site: António Veloso. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
27. Web site: Carlos Gomes. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
28. Web site: João Santos. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
29. Web site: Norton de Matos. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
30. News: Equipa entra hoje em cena. Team gets going today. Record. pt. 3 July 2013. 13 May 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20150630073457/http://www.record.xl.pt/Futebol/Nacional/liga_honra/benfica_b/interior.aspx?content_id=831009. 30 June 2015.
31. Web site: Hélder Cristóvão. ForaDeJogo. 10 November 2016.
32. News: 2 July 2018. Bruno Lage is the new coach of Benfica B. S.L. Benfica. 31 August 2018.
33. Web site: Bruno Lage. ForaDeJogo. 29 August 2018.
34. Web site: Nélson Veríssimo. ForaDeJogo. 17 January 2019.
35. Web site: Plantel. S.L. Benfica. pt. Squad. 3 July 2023.