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

It was 1995, Farense was having a fantastic season, Benfica was having a nightmare season, but on the first of April of that year, no one could have predicted what was going to happen at the Estádio São Luís.

There was a time when traveling to the Algarve was like going to the dentist for any title contender in Portugal. A period where Sporting Clube Farense prided itself on the intense atmosphere created in São Luis, a cauldron of emotions that made it difficult for the visitors to deal with. Guided by the phlegmatic Catalan manager Paco Fortes, the Farense team achieved its best result in the history of the Portuguese championship in 1995 and secured a place for European competitions the following season. One of the most decisive moments of the season occurred when champions Benfica came to town and were upstaged by the home team.

Talk about the 1994/95 season and Benfica fans will tremble. The famous “Vietnam years”, a turbulent period that lasted more than a decade and tore Portugal’s most successful club to shreds, began exactly the year after one of the most famous title victories and the most memorable in memory. Yet for the board, winning the League and reaching the last 16 of the Cup Winners’ Cup was not enough.

The beloved Toni was sacked, replaced by his former best friend Artur Jorge, a man who had been one of the club’s greatest scorers but whose time as FC Porto coach had tainted his perception among the Águias supporters. Jorge not only gave the club a different tactical approach to Toni, but he also made several changes to the team that had just won the league title. The return to the Champions League brought signings such as Argentina international Claudio Cannigia, alongside promising Brazilian Edílson. The club also recruited Michel Preud’homme, recently voted best goalkeeper of the 1994 World Cup.

Benfica started the season, as expected, with the team aiming for back-to-back honours, but this quickly proved to be a huge disappointment. Beaten in the round of 16 of the Champions League by AC Milan, the Lisbonites were never up to the national challenge of a renewed FC Porto and a Sporting which was still healing the wounds of the end of the season terrible in 1994. While Sir Bobby Robson and Carlos Queiroz fought neck and neck for the title until the Dragões visited Alvalade, Benfica quickly fell behind, to the point where they had to fear losing the third place against an accomplished team from Vitória SC. The Guimarães team has been one of the surprises of the season and just behind them in the ranking is Farense, who have become one of the most popular teams in the country during the season. A rare achievement for a club south of Setúbal.

Football in the Algarve has always existed in a world of its own. For decades, a lack of infrastructure made Faro seem as close to Seville as it was to Lisbon. Local rivalries between Farense, Portimonense, Louletano and Olhanense flourished, but in turn they rarely managed to maintain a regular presence among the country’s elite. Olhanense won a Campeonato de Portugal at the dawn of football in Portugal – according to some, the equivalent of being national champions – but until 1941 they had a veto to enter the newly formed league championship.

For clubs in the Algarve, the distance also meant it became more difficult to sign players who did not relish the idea of ​​remaining isolated from their families. Away fans were also rare, as traveling across the country on the old national highways meant long hours of driving south and north. When the highway linking the capital to the Algarve was finally completed, things began to change quickly. Tourism began to flourish, following the Spanish Mediterranean trend. The Algarve has become the place to be for Lisbon’s upper and middle classes, quickly followed by people from the insurgent economic centers of the north. It has also become a haven for foreign tourists, notably British, German and Dutch, who appreciate the tranquility of the region, as well as its mild climate and the supreme quality of its gastronomy.

The excitement around the Algarve quickly transferred to the world of football, with Portimonense enjoying a short-lived golden age in the early 1980s. However, by the end of the decade, it was Sporting Farense who took over. The club was established in the 1920s by Sporting fanatics who chose as their main kit a version of the Stromp jersey used by the Lisbon team. However, as they only had the opportunity to capture images through newspapers, they mistook the green and white shirt for a black and white shirt, and so Farense adopted only these two colors for their main outfit , a trend that has stood the test of time. . At the end of the 1980s, Farense reached the first division for only the fifth time in their history, after a brief spell at the start of the previous decade and a few turbulent seasons in the early 1980s.

In 1990, they not only celebrated their return to the first division, but also their only appearance in the final of the Portuguese Cup, lost in a replay against Estrela da Amadora (see The day Estrela da Amadora knocked out Vitória SC en route to Portuguese Cup glory article).

Match report in A Bola from April 2, 1995, the day after Farense’s victory over Benfica

It was the beginning of the golden era in the club’s history, guided by the enthusiastic Paco Fortes, a former Barcelona player who had finished his career in the Algarve and where he remained, brilliantly coaching the team for more than of a decade. Fortes had an eye for scouting, but he was at his best elevating relatively unknown players to top performers. During the first half of the 1990s, Faro became one of the most difficult away grounds to visit for any team. They finished seventh in their first season in the top flight and sixth in the next two, always on the verge of qualifying for Europe. A dip in 1993/94 led many to believe the good times were over, but Fortes was just tying up the final details of what would become his best team.

When Benfica came to town, there were still eight matches left until the end of the season and Farense was fighting neck and neck with União de Leiria, Marítimo, Tirsense, Sporting Braga and Boavista for a place in the top five . They owed in particular to the goals of the Moroccan international Hassan Nader and the superb defensive qualities of the Nigerian prince Peter Rufai. Africa had become a privileged place to recruit for the Algarve. Moroccan Hajry, Senegalese Moussa and Angolan central defender Rául were key figures in the team which also included Brazilians King, Sérgio Duarte and Helcinho and many Portuguese players relatively unknown today but who were household names in the 1990s, like Hugo, Paixão, Miguel Serôdio, Tozé and Jorge Soares.

Indeed, it was the central defender who would later sign for Benfica who opened the scoring in the 25th minute. Played on a sunny Saturday afternoon on April 1, the packed São Luis saw Soares head in a perfectly executed free kick by Hajry to draw first blood in a match already dominated by the home side. Benfica were everywhere from the kick-off, but to everyone’s surprise, they equalized three minutes later, thanks to Edílson. The half-time draw flattered the visiting team, with Fortes outclassing European Cup winner Artur Jorge.

That superiority eventually turned into goals in a frantic second half that showed the best Farense could offer and the worst of a Benfica team already at rock bottom. Moussa scored twice and Hassan headed 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 fair and square as the home side claimed five more wins from the next seven matches to reach fifth place, their historic campaign in the Portuguese league.

Unfortunately, the club was already suffering from the financial burden of lack of investment and support from local businessmen. Half the team was sold or left the club the following summer, with King and Hassan signing for Benfica, after impressing Artur Jorge in that duel against São Luis. Farense failed to beat Olympique Lyonnais in the preliminary round of the UEFA Cup and the team’s substitutions did not live up to expectations, with the team finishing in a disappointing 10th place in the league. Fortes remained manager until 1999 and two seasons after his departure the club was eventually relegated, entering a dark period which almost ended its existence.

Yet the 1990s were a golden era for a team that established itself as the Algarve’s leading power. Some matches epitomize those golden years perfectly, but none as perfect as when Benfica were mercilessly trashed on that sunny April afternoon. A day that Farense fans know will be difficult to repeat, especially as the club abandons the São Luis field to play in the more modern Faro-Loulé stadium against the Big Three, preferring a larger entry ticket the opportunity to evoke memories of golden hours that still remain in the heart and soul of every supporter of the club. Glimpses of a time when the Algarve team brought down their Goliath.