Has a team ever went undefeated and lost the league? Jose Mourinho's Benfica could make unwanted history

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Martin Macdonald | Author

This past Sunday, Benfica secured one of their biggest victories of the season when they beat reigning Portuguese champions Sporting CP 2-1 away from home.

Andreas Schjelderup gave the visitors the lead in the first half with a penalty, only for Hidemasa Morita to equalise for Sporting 18 minutes from time.

However, Benfica would claim all three points thanks to a dramatic winner from Rafa Silva in the 93rd minute as he ghosted into the area to smuggle a strike home, sending head coach Jose Mourinho and his team-mates into raptures.

The result meant that Benfica maintained their season-long unbeaten run of 30 matches without defeat.

In fact, the Eagles are the only club within the top five leagues in Europe to remain undefeated this season.

Yet, they are still unlikely to win the league as, at the moment, they are seven points adrift of league leaders Porto with four matches to play. While Benfica may not have lost a game in the Primeira Liga, they have steadily lost pace with Porto due to a high amount of draws.

From their first 30 games this season, they have won 21, drawn nine and lost zero. Damaging draws included two stalemates against Casa Pia (16th in the league) and one versus Tondela (17th in the league).

It is possible that Mourinho and Benfica go undefeated for an entire campaign and still lose the league - and that has never happened in a top five 'elite' European league. In Portugal, it's happened once, but not in an 18-team league.

Has a team ever gone undefeated and lost the league?

There have been several cases of a team going invincible but walking away empty-handed.

- In 2008, Red Star Belgrade lost the 2007/08 Serbian SuperLiga by five points to Partizan. Even though they were undefeated, they drew 12 out of 33 games, while Partizan only lost once, to their credit.

- In 1986, Galatasaray relied on a sturdy defence to finish the season level on points with Besiktas. However, that focus on defensive stability rather than finding the back of the net came back to haunt them, as they lost the title on goal difference.

- Before the Saudi Pro League was a money-spending juggernaut, more modest players took to the field in the league. In 2014/15, Al-Ahli went undefeated but, while in pole position to win the league, they drew their last two, which allowed Al-Nassr to leapfrog them to the championship.

- The top division in Congo uses a playoff system at the end of the campaign and in 2012, CSMD Diables Noir 2012 went all the way through the league and the playoff phase without losing in 90 minutes, eventually surrendering the title on penalties.

- Over the 30-game Serie A season in 1978/79, Perugia went undefeated but this sounds better than it really was, as they drew 19 of those 30 games and won just 11. They finished second behind Milan.

- In the 1998/99 First League of Federal Republic Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro, both Oblic and Partizan went unbeaten, with the former drawing one more game than the latter to lose the league by two points.

- The Moldovan SuperLiga is split into two phases and Sheriff remarkably went through two phases unbeaten. In Phase 1, they topped the standings, but in Phase 2, they finished second behind Milsami Orhei.

- Unfortunately for Benfica, this had indeed happened previously. In the 1977–78 Primeira Divisão, Benfica and Porto only lost one match between them and finished the season level on 81 points. Porto had a +60 goal difference, while Benfica's was +45.

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