The season is halfway through, the calendar year is ending, and Benfica has reached 30 games, a record that began on August 4 this year, in Moscow, with the first leg of the third qualifying round of the Champions League, with the 30th game to arrive last Thursday, at Dragão, with the elimination of the Portuguese Cup, against FC Porto. Half of the games are for the Championship, ten for the Champions League (includes third qualifying round, play-off and group stage), three for the Portuguese Cup and two for the League Cup.
Reds have more matches than all the teams in the top-5 UEFA championships (England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France), which is natural, as these countries qualify almost all teams directly to the group stages of the European competitions.
From the top-5, only Monaco has reached this point in three dozen matches. Like Benfica, the French entered the Champions League third qualifying round
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