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Benfica B

Full name	Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B"
Nickname(s)	As Águias (The Eagles) Os Encarnados (The Reds)
Founded	1999
Ground	Benfica Campus
Capacity	2,720
President	Rui Costa
Head coach	Nélson Veríssimo
League	Liga Portugal 2
2022–23	Liga Portugal 2, 15th of 18
Website	https://www.slbenfica.pt/en-us/futebol/equipa_b
Home colours Away colours
Current season

Active departments of S.L. Benfica
Football Football B Football U19 Football (women's) Futsal Roller hockey Basketball Handball Volleyball Athletics Swimming Rugby union Table tennis Billiards Canoeing

Closed departments
Archery Beach soccer Cycling

Sport Lisboa e Benfica "B" (Portuguese pronunciation: [sɨˈpɔɾ liʒˈβoɐ i βɐ̃jˈfikɐ be]), 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. 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.

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. 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. Of those seven clubs, six were selected to take part in the competition: Benfica, Braga, Marítimo, Porto, Sporting CP and Vitória de Guimarães.

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. 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.

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. On 26 May 2019, they played a practice match against Liverpool in Marbella, Spain, five days before the latter's Champions League final.

Players

Current squad

As of 1 July 2024

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 45 GK  JPN Leo Kokubo 48 DF  POR Rafael Rodrigues 52 FW  POR Henrique Pereira 60 MF  POR Nuno Félix 62 DF  FRA Lenny Lacroix 66 DF  USA Joshua Wynder 70 DF  POR Filipe Cruz 73 DF  BRA Tiago Cóser 74 MF  SVN Žan Jevšenak 75 GK  POR André Gomes 76 DF  BRA Gustavo Marques (on loan from América Mineiro) 77 FW  POR Gerson Sousa

No. Pos. Nation Player 78 DF  POR Kiko Domingues 79 MF  POR Hugo Félix 80 FW  POR Pedro Santos 81 DF  ALB Adrian Bajrami 82 DF  POR Diogo Spencer 83 MF  POR Rafael Luís 84 MF  POR João Rego 86 MF  POR Diogo Prioste 89 FW  POR Gustavo Varela 92 GK  POR Pedro Souza 98 GK  POR Ricardo Ribeiro

Other players under contract

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules; some limited exceptions apply. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 49 MF  POR Martim Neto — DF  POR Ricardo Teixeira

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  POR Tiago Dantas — FW  POR Henrique Araújo

1. "Benfica B muda-se para a Tapadinha". Maisfutebol.
2. Pereira, David (17 August 2018). "Liga Revelação estreia este sábado. Sabe como funciona?" [Liga Revelação debuts this Saturday. Do you know how it works?]. Diário de Notícias (in Portuguese). Retrieved 4 September 2023.
3. "Despertador encarnado tocou tarde" A Bola, 30 August 1999 (in Portuguese)
4. "II Divisão Série D". zerozero. 9 June 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
5. "Sete clubes interessados nas seis vagas para equipas B" [Seven clubs interested for the six vacancies for B teams]. Relvado. 17 February 2012. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
6. "Equipas B de FC Porto, Benfica e Sporting confirmadas" [B teams of FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting have been confirmed]. Relvado. 28 May 2012. Archived from the original on 20 April 2014. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
7. "Equipas B custam 50 mil euros de inscrição" [B teams' registration costs €50,000]. O Jogo. 21 May 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
8. "Liga: seis clubes inscreveram a equipa "B"" [League: six clubs register for a B team]. Maisfutebol. 28 May 2012. Retrieved 9 June 2012.
9. Aaron Flanagan. "FC United of Manchester open new stadium against Benfica... and show what football fans can achieve". Daily Mirror. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
10. Ben Collins (29 May 2015). "FC United 0 Benfica 1: Match report of official opening of new Broadhurst Park stadium". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved 2 June 2015.
11. Chegodaev, Andrey (26 May 2019). "Liverpool beat Benfica B before return from Marbella training camp". Tribuna. Retrieved 27 May 2019.
12. "Plantel" [Squad]. S.L. Benfica (in Portuguese). Retrieved 23 June 2023.
13. "Sport Lisboa e Benfica, Futebol, SAD B". Liga Portugal. Retrieved 29 July 2023.