Rampant rise

The good European campaign of Benfica's women's football team is reflected in the UEFA rankings, which have been rising at a rampant rate. With a historic 12th place, Filipa Patão's side are on the verge of breaking into the top 10 of a list led by European champions Barcelona, their opponents in Group A of the Champions League.

From 94th place in 2020, still without a coefficient, Benfica climbed 24 places to 70th in 2020/21.

Always developing among the best teams on the Old Continent, the biggest leap came in 2021/22, when the Eagles reached 37th place.

In 2022/23, with the 6 points won in the Champions League group stage, the Reds moved closer to the top 20 (23rd), while in the three updates already carried out by the European football governing body this season, Benfica continued to climb the ranks. From 15th place, on October 30, 2023, there was also a rise to 13th place, before the climb to the top 12 after the draw (1-1) in Germany with Eintracht Frankfurt (matchday 4 of group A).

With a total coefficient of 33,200, the Eagles are close to Atlético de Madrid (11th with 33,699), who, despite not being in the Champions League, benefit from Spain's ranking, which is higher than Portugal's. It's a factor that is included in UEFA's calculations. This factor is taken into account by UEFA, which includes 20% of each country's coefficient to calculate the total.

Article published in the December 29 edition of the newspaper O Benfica