Being invincible in a season is something which most football clubs have never achieved, with only six teams from Europe’s 10 biggest leagues achieving it since 2000: Arsenal in 2003-04, Sparta Prague in 2009-10, Juventus in 2011-12, Porto in 2012-13, Slavia Prague in 2020-21 and Bayer Leverkusen in 2023-24. And yet, being invincible, in rare instances, can be a nightmare.
Internationally, New Zealand famously drew all three games at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, but were knocked out in a group with Paraguay, Slovakia and Italy, with Paraguay and Slovakia on five and four points respectively. Eventual winners Spain lost a group stage match to Switzerland thanks to a Gelson Fernandes goal, meaning New Zealand were the only team to go unbeaten in the tournament but were knocked out in the group stages.
Since 2000, two first-division women’s teams (Rosenborg in Norway in 2020 and Breiðablik in Iceland in 2019) and two first-division men’s teams have gone invincible in Europe and failed to win the league. If José Mourinho’s Benfica draw or beat former Hearts manager Ian Cathro’s Estoril away on the final day, they will become the third men’s side since the turn of the Millenia to go invincible and not win the league.
The other two men’s teams
The other two top-flight men’s teams to do so were Sheriff Tiraspol, the Moldovan side who famously defeated Real Madrid in 2021 in the Champions League in 2024-25, and 1990-91 European Cup winners Red Star Belgrade from Serbia in 2007-08.
Sheriff got unlucky with how the Moldovan league system works. They won their first 14 games, and were 11 points ahead of second place in Phase I of the Moldovan Super Liga. Then, Phase II began, in which the highest six teams of eight have their points reset. Sheriff won five and drew five, while Milsami Orhei won six and drew three, winning the league by a point.
In Serbia, Red Star played a regular season and won 21 times, drawing 12. They had the misfortune of being up against a Partizan side who had Lamine Diarra, Zoran Tošić and Stevan Jovetić. Their city rivals lost once – a 4-1 defeat to Red Star themselves – and drew eight. A draw against relegated Banat Zrenjanin, two draws vs relegation candidates Hajduk Kula and Mladost Lučani costed them the points which would have won them the league.
Benfica’s unique story
Benfica, similarly to Red Star, are rather unfortunate to have a brilliant side to compete against: Francesco Farioli’s title-winning Porto team, who have young stars like Samu Aghehowa, Victor Froholdt, William Gomes and Rodrigo Mora combining with the experience of Thiago Silva, Seko Fofana and Diogo Costa, the latter of whom has played over 240 games for Porto’s first team by the age of 26.
Not only this team have been competitive, but also Rui Borges’ Sporting CP side. Colombian striker Luis Suárez has been electric for them this season, scoring 26 times in the Primeira Liga this season to be the league’s top goalscorer.
Yet, both sides have lost twice. Sporting lost to Porto in August and Benfica in April, while Porto lost to Casa Pia in early February, and lost to AVS last weekend, having already secured the title by taking three more wins than Sporting.
Benfica, meanwhile, have had 11 draws this season, the tied-most in the league. Yet, a loss or draw for Sporting against sixth-placed Gil Vicente and a win for Benfica would secure a place in the Champions League third qualifying round, where they could play Celtic or Hearts.
If not, it’ll be Europa League’s second qualifying round at worst and the League Phase at best, depending on if Sporting win the Taça de Portugal. They could meet Rangers if Celtic win the Scottish Cup and Rangers make it to the League Phase, or could face Dunfermline in what would be an incredible story.
How did they get here?
How did they get to this point, you may ask?
Well, despite having 11 draws, Benfica only picked up consecutive draws once this season: in the last two matchdays. Thus, it’s not necessarily when they drew, but more so who they drew with. Specifically, two each against Braga and Casa Pia, while Porto won three times against them, and Sporting won twice against them.
The gap between Mourinho’s Benfica in third to Farioli’s Porto in first is eight points (Porto on 85, Sporting on 79 and Porto on 77). The draws against Braga and Casa Pia have costed Benfica a chance at the title on the final day, not including Rio Ave and Tondela, who Porto also beat twice that Benfica drew with.
By drawing against Casa Pia twice, a side in a relegation battle, Benfica shot themselves in the foot. Last month’s match saw multiple chances which should have gone in, before Enzo Barrenechea switched off, allowing Rafael Brito enough time and space to equalise.
The reverse fixture saw Benfica lose a two-goal advantage. This came through a controversial handball given as a penalty to Casa Pia, which was saved by Anatoliy Trubin before Tomás Araújo put the ball into his own net, and a rebound by substitute Renato Nhaga.
They also lost a two-goal advantage against Famalicão, but Nicolás Otamendi’s red card certainly didn’t help their chances of keeping the advantage. Two late goals conceded in added-time against 10-men Santa Clara and another late goal let in versus Rio Ave, who they led for five minutes, costed them points too.
A goalless draw against relegation-scrapping Tondela was another missed opportunity, in which Vangelis Pavlidis failed to spot Daniel Banjaqui, who would have scored into an empty net to win Benfica the game. A strong goalkeeping performance from Bernardo Fontes also denied Mourinho’s side the victory.
Last Monday’s game against Braga saw a last-minute penalty from Pavlidis to keep their unbeaten run going, but also saw poor man-marking for Pau Víctor’s equaliser, which came just 110 seconds after Rafa Silva opened the scoring, and another controversial decision as to whether Andreas Schjelderup kept the ball in play before playing it into Pavlidis for a goal that was disallowed.
Moments like Pavlidis’ equaliser have also happened this season though, namely, two late goals vs Nacional in a 2-1 win, a 93rd minute winner from Silva to keep their hopes of Champions League football alive against Sporting in another 2-1 victory, and a 96th minute goal from Franjo Ivanović against Arouca in, you guessed it, a 2-1 win. The latter saw a fiery ending, with one red card for each side and three yellow cards for Benfica.
Yet, to still be unbeaten after 33 games is an incredible achievement, in spite of all of their missed opportunities to win more matches. With one game to go, Benfica could become the fifth top-flight European side this century in either men’s or women’s football to go unbeaten and not win the league. All they need to do is win or draw against Estoril, and they will gain such an unfortunate honour.
