With just one month left into the season, Benfica head coach Jorge Jesus was leading a charmed life. After all his Benfica side were leading the Portuguese league and in both the Europa League and Portuguese Cup finals. Talk amongst Benfica supporters had them dreaming of the treble season, little did they know what the future really held.
Undefeated in the league all year and with a four point lead with just three games remaining the club seemed destined to be league champions. With a penultimate game away to 2nd place FC Porto, managing all three points at home Estoril was of the uttermost importance. What played out proved to be the first nail in Benfica's horrific season ending collapse. Held at halftime, Estoril took the lead early in the second half but a Maxi Periera volley would level things midway through the second half. Two yellow cards in short order to Portuguese international Carlos Martins saw the team reduced to ten men and nearly lose the game. All in all, the Benfica lead at the top of the league was down to two points after a 1-1 home draw.
With everything now to play for at the Estadio Do Dragao, both clubs traded goals in the first half and the match seemed destined for a draw, a result that would have suited Benfica fine. That all changed in stoppage time when FC Porto substitute Kelvin fired home and sent the home crowd into delirium and Jorge Jesus down to his knees. The championship was now out of their hands and an FC Porto win on the last match day against Pacos Ferriera would confirm Benfica's fate to second place.
Sizable underdogs heading into the Europa League final against English Premier League club Chelsea, the choice to bench star striker Lima and replace him with Rodrigo was not a popular decision in most football circles. A 60th minute Fernando Torres opening goal for Chelsea was soon cancelled out by an Oscar Cardozo penalty kick goal. It was once again in stoppage time where Benfica hearts would break, Branislav Ivanovic would head home a corner with just a minute of time to play to give Chelsea a 2-1 Europa League final win.
With two trophies now out of their hands, a date with mid-table Portuguese club Vitoria Guimaraes in the Portuguese Cup final would surely stop the bleeding or so most people thought. A bit of fortune off a clearance allowed Benfica to go ahead through Nicholas Gaitan but once again the team would collapse in the final stages as Guimares would score twice in the final ten minutes through some shoddy Benfica defence. From possible treble winners to winning absolutely nothing, the campaign ended in absolute disaster. Perhaps the most indicative image of the season came after the final whistle when substituted striker Cardozo was caught on camera shoving Jorge Jesus and lambasting him for seemingly being taken off.
Having had such a dismal end to the season and with player dissent seemingly on the rise at the club, the future of Jorge Jesus was very much in doubt. However, news on Tuesday broke that his contract has indeed been extended at the club until June 2015. How supporters react to the news will be interesting, the club won one league championship and three Portuguese cup trophies since he took over in 2009 but would have starting from scratch with a new coach after such a tumultuous ending to the season perhaps have been the smarter move for the club. One thing is for sure, next season will start with more questions than answers for Portugal's most popular club.
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