Jose Mourinho’s Benfica on the verge of matching Arsenal’s Invincibles – but with a key twist

Jose Mourinho is four games away from leading Benfica to a historic unbeaten campaign – but he almost certainly won’t be lifting any silverware in his first season back in his home country of Portugal in over 20 years.

Benfica leapfrogged their Lisbon rivals Sporting with a 2-1 victory, won away from home via Rafa Silva in the third minute of added time, but only up to second place.

The result almost confirms that Porto will win the Primeira Liga title. They’ve been relentless under former Ajax manager Francesco Farioli, with just one league defeat all season, while Sunday’s routine 2-0 victory over Tondela puts them seven points clear at the summit.

Despite maintaining Benfica’s unbeaten record in the league after succeeding Bruno Lage back in September, too many draws have ultimately proved costly.

The Eagles have drawn nine of 30 matches in the Primeira Liga this season, leaving Mourinho with no illusions that they still harbour any hopes of the title.

“We’re happy to have won; we could talk about being unhappy if Sporting had won. We played an extraordinary game, we move on,” Mourinho told the media after Benfica’s last-gasp win in the Derby de Lisboa.

“We continue to depend on the results of others. My frustration at Casa Pia was because we lost the situation of depending on ourselves.

“I wanted to come here today, play to win and be second. We came here to play to win, we won, but we continue to depend on Sporting’s results, not to mention FC Porto , which is a significant advantage.”

Defeats to Porto and Braga in the domestic cups, as well as former side Real Madrid in the Champions League, mean that Mourinho’s first season back at Benfica – a return to the first club he served as manager, after being inauspiciously sacked a quarter of a century ago – will end trophyless.

Once an unthinkable rarity in Mourinho’s prime years, trophyless campaigns are now a relatively common occurrence in the latter years of the 63-year-old’s managerial career – from Manchester United to Tottenham to Roma to Fenerbahce.

This would actually be the fifth time that a team has gone unbeaten in the Portuguese Primeira Liga – with it being the usual suspects in the past. Porto managed it in 2010-11 and 2012-13, while Benfica did it twice back in the 1970s.

Surprisingly enough, this wouldn’t be the first time that Benfica complete the achievement of an ‘Invincibles’ unbeaten league campaign without winning the title. They actually finished runners-up to Porto , only via goal difference, back in 1977-78.

Back then, a young Mourinho was still developing his skills in the youth ranks of Belenenses, eventually embarking on a short and not especially successful career as a midfielder in the mid-1980s.

Benfica’s 1977-78 campaign isn’t a total historic aberration. The following season, Perugia famously went unbeaten in Serie A, but they drew 19(!) of 30 matches and finished runners-up to AC Milan.

Galatasaray (1985-86) and Red Star Belgrade (2007-08) are among the other sides who have registered a historic unbeaten league season without topping the table.

Meanwhile, Mourinho remains tight-lipped on his future amid rumours of a return to Real Madrid.

“I cannot say, how can I say such a thing? It doesn’t just depend on me! It’s obvious,” he told reporters ahead of Sunday’s match with Sporting.

“A coach in a club structure, a coach, a player, a press director, a physiotherapist, all of us in a club structure, like you, as a journalist from A BOLA, you cannot guarantee that you will be at BOLA for the next 10 years; maybe you want to be, but you cannot guarantee it. Obviously, I cannot guarantee it.”

Real Madrid bringing Mourinho back, fresh from an Invincible season? That’s one way to spin it…