Maximum grade for Benfica in the first half of the Liga NOS

48 points out of a possible 51! This is the record of Benfica coached by Bruno Lage at the end of the first half of the 2019/20 edition of the Liga NOS, which allows it to have the best performance ever (with 18 teams). It should be remembered that last season the coach and players had already achieved - with 16 wins and a draw - the best second half in history.

Caption: Top 3 Points

The 42 accurate strikes (24 at Estádio da Luz and 18 away from home) in 17 matches make a goal average of 2,47 per game; defensively, it only conceded six, which makes an average of 0,35 every 90 minutes. With 12 goals, Pizzi is the top scorer of the Liga NOS, followed by his Vinícius, with 11; in the assist chapter, is also Pizzi who leads with eight passes for goal in the assist chapter, is also Pizzi the commander, with eight assists.

Collectively, according to the Wyscout platform, there are other records to be taken into account in the team coached by Bruno Lage. It is the team with fewer fouls committed in the Liga NOS (211), with more passes (8497), with more passes to explore the depth (184), with more key passes (89) and with more smart passes (189).

Caption: Top 3 Passes

The eagles, following on from last season, maintain their goalscoring form in the Liga NOS. At Estádio da Luz, against Paços de Ferreira, in the opening round, there was a 5-0 win. In the routs chapter, that was followed by 0-4 over SC Braga, 4-0 over Portimonense, 4-0 over Marítimo, 1-4 over Boavista and 4-0 over Famalicão.

In the Portuguese top flight, Benfica is in a 14-match scoring streak. It scored in 94% of its matches and displays the same winning percentage in the competition.

Solid defense

At the end of the 1^st half of the league, the Reds conceded only six goals and in the 17 games played, Odysseas kept 12 clean sheets. Only FC Porto, Moreirense, Santa Clara, Boavista, and CD Aves were able to beat the Greek international goalkeeper.

Caption: Top 3 Goals Conceded

Bruno Lage collects records

In addition to the best 1^st and 2^nd halves of the Championship, Bruno Lage was the fastest to reach 25 and 30 wins with Benfica in the competition; he was the coach who needed less time to reach 100 points (35 rounds) and racks 17 wins away from home, which represents an unprecedented achievement in the history of the competition.

The team also scored 103 goals in the last edition of the Portuguese League, equaling the club's best record, dating from 1963/64 (an average of 3,03 goals per match).

Influential Pizzi

The midfielder is the top scorer of the Liga NOS, with 12 goals and he is also the top assist provider, with eight assists.

At 30, the Portuguese international is going through one of the best phases of his career. Carrying out the most prolific season of his career, with 20 official goals, Pizzi scored in four of the five competitions in which he has participated (the League Cup is the exception) and exceeds the 15 goals scored in 2018/19.

Caption: Top 3 Goal Scorers

According to the website Transfermarkt, Pizzi is in the top 20 of the most influential players of all the leagues from Europe, being the only Portuguese player and player from Liga NOS to feature in this list. The participation he had in 20 goals put in the 18th place of a ranking whose podium is occupied by Immobile, Timo Werner and Lewandowski.

Vinícius is also carrying out an outstanding season. Jointly, Vinícius and Pizzi, according to Transfermarkt, are one of the most effective partnerships among the Top 10 leagues of the Old Continent.

Caption: Top 3 Assist Providers

The 23 goals (12 from Pizzi and 11 from Vinícius) plus the 14 assists (8 and 6) mean that this duo was was involved in 37 goals of the team in the Championship, the same as the duo Immobile and Correa, from Lazio, and only beat by the partnerships from RB Leipzig (Timo Werner and Sabitzer), with 39, and from Barcelona (Messi and Suárez), with 38. The Benfica duo only sees one club ahead of them in the assists chapter: Borussia Dortmund, with 16, the result of the inspiration of Jadon Sancho and Reus.

Text: Marco Rebelo

Photos: SL Benfica