On the evening of December 28, Beijing time, Portuguese Super League giant Benfica announced that he had terminated his contract with the 67-year-old Jesus, who would no longer serve as the first-team manager. It is reported that Benfica had previously suffered a 0-3 defeat at the feet of Porto, which triggered infighting, and the first-team players collectively went on strike, which eventually led to his departure.
This season, Benfica played on the 3rd line, and in the Champions League group stage they were separated with Bayern, Barca and Dynamo Kiev. After the first 5 rounds, Benfica scored only 5 points, ranking 3rd in the group! In the final round, they beat the desperate Dynamo Kiev 2-0, while Bayern beat Barca 3-0.
As a result, Benfica achieved a last-minute overtaking, pushing Barca to advance to the Champions League round of 16 and compete with Ajax for the top 8 places, while Xavi's team was forced to play in the Europa League play-offs.
At the time, the 67-year-old Jesus was full of energy, and he publicly thanked Bayern for not releasing water, and leading the team to push Barca out was one of the highest achievements of his coaching career. Who would have thought that, after just 35 days, he would be out of class?
In the previous Portuguese Cup 1/8 final, Benfica challenged Porto away, but this strong dialogue became a unilateral hanging blow for Porto, Ivanelson scored twice, Vitinia scored a goal, and Benfica fell behind 0-3 at half-time. Before the end of the game, Otamendi was also expelled from the field with a red card for malicious fouls, which can be said to have lost and lost.
After the 0-3 defeat, Benfica was emotionally negative inside, and striker Pizzi vented his anger in the dressing room, not only criticizing his teammates for not being strong, but also questioning manager Jesus. This made Jesus very unhappy, and he did not allow Pizzi to return to the team to practice together, but let him train alone.
However, Jesus' move was unpopular, and most of the players in benfica expressed disgust and supported Pizzi through a collective strike until club president Rui Costa intervened to calm the storm. Eventually, Jesus and Benfica were released and assistant coach Verisimo took over as first-team manager until the end of the season.
The 67-year-old Jesus has twice coached Benfica, winning three Portuguese Premier League titles, six Portuguese League Cups, one Portuguese Cup and two Portuguese Super Cups, for a total of 12 titles. In August 2020, Jesus returned to Benfica and ended up leaving school after 1 year and 4 months.
Currently, Benfica is 3rd in the Portuguese Premier League table, four points behind Porto at the top of the table. Two days later, Benfica will be away to Porto again, a six-point title battle, and if it loses, Benfica will be seven points behind, basically losing hope of winning the championship.
As the saying goes, changing the coach is like changing the knife, can Jesus make Benfica come back to life after class and win the battle for life and death? We'll see.