Despite a league and cup double, John Mortimore was replaced with Ebbe Skovdahl, who failed to meet expectations, being sacked before the end of November. With the league out of reach, Benfica focused on their European campaign, now with Toni at the helm. Eliminating Partizani Tirana, Aarhus, Anderlecht and Steaua București, Benfica met PSV Eindhoven in the European Cup final. Without a key player like Diamantino, Benfica employed a cautious tactic, with the final being decided on the penalty-spot, where they lost, after van Breukelen defended a shot from Veloso. Domestically, Benfica came second behind Porto, and was knocked-out of the Portuguese Cup by the same team.
Skovadahl stint at Benfica was a short-lived. Losses against Setúbal, Marítimo and Desportivo de Chaves led to immense pressure from the fans and four months into the season, on 28 November, he was sacked.[19] He left the team 12 rounds into the season already trailing leader Porto by five points.[20] His assistant Toni accepted the invitation to lead the team, in his first experience as manager.[21] In his first game, he lost three-nil at home to Sporting for the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira.[22]
With little chance of renewing the league title, Benfica focused on their European campaign.[23] In the first round, a 4-0 win against the violent Partizani Tirana saw UEFA expel the Albanians and void the second leg.[24] Afterwards, they knocked-out Aarhus and Anderlecht, reaching the semi-finals with Steaua București, the winners of the 1985–86 European Cup.[24][25] For the game with Steaua, Toni travelled to Glasgow and asked Graeme Souness for the videotapes of Rangers's games with them.[24] He concluded the threat was Gheorghe Hagi and he needed to be annulled, a task that fell to Shéu, which he perform without mistakes.[24]
In the second leg, Rui Águas scored twice to put Benfica into their first European Cup final since 1968.[26][27] The three-year project of a "European Benfica" produced his first result in his first season.[23]
"Steaua gave me hope. Águas was amazing, and so was Diamantino. But he had that last minute misfortune [Diamantino's injury]...So he had to play in Stuttgart with Mauser rifles against an opponent equipped with laser guns. So to counter that, Benfica set up traps in a Portuguese way and passed unscathed through the game, even managing to overcome the deficit in potential and power between us until the end. What we did made me proud and with clear conscience. PSV ended up winning on the lottery"
Before the final against PSV Eindhoven, Benfica lost Diamantino, a key player in the team that got severely injured and missed the final.[26] In the final, Benfica also saw Rui Águas leave the pitch in the second half due to injury, forcing Toni to use Wando as forward.[26][29] Another problem was the brand new socks that the team wore that caused the boots to slide out, with significant problems in traction for the players.[26][30] The game was described as with the two teams playing cautiously, ending in 0–0, and requiring penalties to decide the winner.[26] After the first set of penalties with all players scoring, the first of the second round of penalties fell to captain Veloso, who saw his shot defended by van Breukelen, awarding the cup to the Dutch team.[31] Breukelen explained that he had a little book where he kept score of the direction the players shot their penalties. Veloso was there with a penalty shot to the right in a tournament in Spain.[32]
A few days later, Benfica closed the season with one-nil loss to Porto in the semi-final of the Taça Portugal.[33] In the league, Benfica ended 15 points behind them in second place.[24]
The squad for the season consisted of the players listed in the tables below, as well as staff member Ebbe Skovdahl (manager), Toni (manager), Jesualdo Ferreira (assistant manager), Eusébio (assistant manager), Gaspar Ramos (Director of Football), Vieira da Fonseca (Doctor), Amílcar Miranda (Doctor).[14][34]
Note 1: Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
Note 2: Players with squad numbers marked ‡ joined the club during the 1987-88 season via transfer, with more details in the following section.
^This competition was played with a mixed of squad players from the first team and others from youth
References
^"Dirigente do Benfica "visitou" Eriksson" [Senior director of Benfica "visited" Eriksson]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22349. 28 April 1987. p. 15. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^"Benfica: Futebol em tempo de cifrões" [Benfica: Football in a time to count pennies]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22356. 7 May 1987. p. 14. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^"Bengtsson anuncia indisponibilidade" [Bengtsson is unavailable]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22406. 8 July 1987. p. 15. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
^ abcde"Benfica: abraço de Portugal a Portugueses" [Benfica: Love from Portugal to the Portuguese]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 2397. 27 June 1987. pp. 18, 19. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
^"Benfica na Suiça" [Benfica in Switzerland]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22418. 22 July 1987. p. 19. Retrieved 27 February 2017.[permanent dead link]
^ ab"Benfica arrecadou "Teresa Herrera"" [Benfica wins "Teresa Herrera"]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22434. 10 August 1987. pp. 13, 18. Archived from the original on 28 February 2017. Retrieved 25 February 2017.
^"Benfica vence" [Benfica wins]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22529. 2 December 1987. p. 18. Retrieved 25 February 2017.[permanent dead link]
^"Portimonense: mudanças" [Portimonense: changes]. Diário de Lisboa (in Portuguese). No. 22399. 30 June 1987. p. 17. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2017.
Bibliography
Tovar, Rui Miguel (2012). Almanaque do Benfica. Portugal: Lua de Papel. ISBN978-989-23-2087-8.
Miguéns, Alberto (2005). 100 anos 100 troféus. Portugal: Prime Books. ISBN972-8820-34-8.
Quidnovi, Redacção (2004). Sport Lisboa e Benfica: 100 Gloriosos anos; As Taças Europeias. Portugal: Quidnovi. ISBN989-554-101-5.
Simões, António (2008). Equipamentos com história. Vol. 4. Portugal. ISBN978-972-99134-7-1. {{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Simões, António (1994). História de 50 Anos do Desporto Português. {{cite book}}: |newspaper= ignored (help)
