Benfica has lost another European final,and it was this Wednesday from Chelsea with Branislav Ivanovic´s late header (Watch video).What is interested , Benfica has played 7 European finals so far since then, and every time they finish it like the losers.That this is perhaps more than coincidence,we looked very far back to the year 1959. and the time when the Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann was coaching the Portuguese side..
In 1959, Benfica signed Hungarian coach Bela Guttmann from Porto. In 3 seasons he won two Portuguese league titles, one Portuguese cup, and two European cups. In 1962 he asked Benfica’s board for a pay raise and they refused. He angrily left the club and said “Not in 100 years from now will Benfica win a European Cup.”
They’ve lost 7 European finals since : 1963, 1965, 1968, 1983, 1988, 1990 and now 2013.
51 years later and the curse of Béla Guttmann continues.