The day Farense humbled champions Benfica

As Benfica prepare to take on Farense later today, Portuguese football historian Miguel Lourenço Pereria takes us on another trip down memory lane to recall one of the most memorable matches ever played by the Algarve club.

The year was 1995, Farense were enjoying a fantastic season, Benfica a nightmare one, but on April Fool’s Day that year nobody could have predicted what was about to play out at the Estádio São Luís. 

Heady days for Paco Fortes’ Farense

There was a time when travelling to the Algarve was like visiting the dentist for any title contender in Portugal. A period when Sporting Clube Farense were proud of the intense atmosphere created at the São Luis, a cauldron of emotions that made it hard for any away side to handle. Guided by the phlegmatic Catalan manager Paco Fortes, in 1995 that Farense side achieved their best result in Portuguese league history and booked a place for the European competitions in the following season. One of the most decisive moments of the season happened when champions Benfica came to town only to be dwarfed by the home side. 

Talk about the 1994/95 season and Benfica supporters will tremble. The famed ‘Vietnam years’, a turbulent period that lasted over a decade and took the most titled Portuguese club to shreds, started exactly in the year following one of the most celebrated and remembered title wins in memory. Yet, for the board, winning the League and reaching the last eight of the Cup Winners Cup wasn’t enough.

Benfica do away with winning formula

The much-beloved Toni was sacked, replaced by his former best friend Artur Jorge, a man who had been one of the club’s greatest goalscorers but whose time as FC Porto manager had tainted his perception with the Águias supporters. Jorge not only bestowed the club a different tactical approach from Toni’s but he also made several changes within the squad that had just claimed the league title. The return to the Champions League brought signings such as Argentinean international Claudio Cannigia, alongside Brazilian promise Edílson. The club also signed Michel Preud’homme, recently voted the best goalkeeper of the 1994 World Cup.

Benfica started the season, as expected, as the side favoured to win back-to-back honours, but they soon proved to be a huge disappointment. Beaten in the last eight of the Champions League by AC Milan, the Lisbon side were never up to the domestic challenge of a renewed FC Porto and a Sporting side who was still licking the wounds of a terrible end of season in 1994. While Sir Bobby Robson and Carlos Queiroz fought for the title neck-and-neck until the Dragões visited Alvalade, Benfica soon lagged behind, up to a point they had to worry about losing third place to an accomplished Vitória SC side. The Guimarães team was one of the surprises of the season and just behind them in the league table we find Farense, who had become one of the most popular sides in the country during the season. A rare achievement for any club south of Setúbal.

Football in the Algarve always existed in a world of its own. For decades the lack of infrastructure meant that Faro seemed as close to Seville as to Lisbon. Local rivalries between Farense, Portimonense, Louletano and Olhanense flourished but in turn, they were rarely able to sustain a regular presence among the country’s elite. Olhanense did win a Campeonato de Portugal at the dawn of football in Portugal – according to some the equivalent of being national champions – but up until 1941 they were vetoed to enter the newly formed league championship.

A changing Algarve

For clubs from the Algarve, the distance also meant it became harder to sign players who resented the idea of staying isolated from their families. Away supporters were also a rare sight as travelling around the country on the old national roads meant long hours driving down south and back up north. When the highway linking the capital to the Algarve was finally concluded things started to change fast. Tourism started to flourish, following the Spanish Mediterranean trend. The Algarve became the place to be for Lisbon’s upper and middle classes, quickly followed by nationals from the northern uprising economic centres. It also became a haven for foreign tourists, particularly British, German and Dutch, who valued the tranquillity of the region, alongside its mild weather and the supreme quality of its gastronomy.

The hype around the Algarve soon transferred to the footballing world with Portimonense experiencing a short-lived golden age in the early 1980s. Come the end of the decade, however, it was Sporting Farense who were on the rise. The club had been formed in the 1920s by Sporting fanatics who chose as the primary kit a version of the Stromp shirt used by the Lisbon side. However, as they had only had the chance of capturing images through the newspapers, they mistook the green and white shirt for a black and white, and so Farense adopted only those two colours for their main kit, a trend that stood the test of time. In the late 1980s, Farense climbed to the first division for only the fifth time in their history after a short stint at the beginning of the previous decade and a couple of up-and-down seasons in the early eighties.

In 1990 not only did they celebrate returning to the first division but also their sole presence in the Portuguese Cup Final, lost in a replay against Estrela da Amadora (see The day Estrela da Amadora knocked out Vitória SC on their way to Portuguese Cup glory article). 

From Barça to Faro

It was the beginning of the golden age of the club’s history, guided by the enthusiastic Paco Fortes, a former Barcelona player who had ended his career in the Algarve and there he remained, coaching the side brilliantly for over a decade. Fortes had an eye for scouting, but he was at his best elevating relatively unknown players into top performers. For the first half of the 1990s, Faro became one of the toughest away grounds to visit for any side. They were seventh in their first season back in the elite and sixth over the following two, always on the brink of qualifying for Europe. A low in 1993/94 made many believe the good times were over but Fortes was just setting the final details for what became his finest side.

All to play for with the 1994/95 finishing tape in sight

When Benfica came to town there were still eight matches to be played until the end of the season and Farense were fighting neck-and-neck with União de Leiria, Marítimo, Tirsense, Sporting Braga and Boavista for a place in the top five. They had the goals of Morrocco international Hassan Nader and the superb defensive qualities of Nigerian prince Peter Rufai to thank for. Africa had become a favoured place to scout for the Algarve side. Moroccan Hajry, Senegalese Moussa and Angolan centre-back Rául were key figures for the side who also included Brazilians King, Sérgio Duarte and Helcinho and many relatively unknown Portuguese players today but who were household names back in the 1990s, such as Hugo, Paixão, Miguel Serôdio, Tozé and Jorge Soares.

Indeed, it was the centre-back who would later sign for Benfica who opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Played on a sunny 1st of April Saturday afternoon, the packed São Luis saw Soares head in a perfectly delivered free-kick by Hajry to draw first blood in a match already dominated by the home side. Benfica were all over the place from kick-off but they surprisingly equalised just three minutes later, through Edílson. The draw at half-time flattered the away side, with Fortes outclassing European Cup winner Artur Jorge.

That superiority was finally transformed into goals in a rampant second half that showed the best Farense could offer and the worst side of a Benfica team who were already on a low. Moussa scored twice and Hassan netted a header in the 80th minute, another goal in his thunderous goalscoring campaign that ended with the Bola de Prata award for the league’s top scorer. Benfica were beaten fairly and squarely as the home side claimed another five wins out of the following seven matches to reach fifth place, their landmark campaign in the Portuguese league.

High point precipitates slide for Farense

Sadly the club was already suffering the financial toll of a lack of investment and support from the local businessmen. Half of the squad were sold or left the club in the following summer with King and Hassan signing for Benfica, after impressing Artur Jorge during that São Luis duel. Farense were unable to beat Olympique Lyon in the UEFA Cup preliminary round and the squad replacements weren’t up to expectations, with the side finishing a disappointing 10th place in the league. Fortes remained as manager until 1999 and two seasons after he left the club was finally relegated, entering a dark period that almost cut short their existence.

Still, the 1990s were a golden period for a side that established themselves as Algarve’s main powerhouse. Some matches epitomize those golden years perfectly but none so perfect as when Benfica was trashed mercilessly on that sunny April afternoon. A day Farense supporters know will be hard to repeat, especially with the club abandoning the São Luis ground to play in the more modern Faro-Loulé stadium against the Big Three, preferring a bigger gate receipt to a chance of evoking memories of golden hours that still linger in the heart and soul of every club supporter. Glimpses of a time when the Algarve team felled their Goliath.   

By Miguel Lourenço Pereria, author of “Bring Me That Horizon – A Journey to the Soul of Portuguese Football”.