What if Benfica had retained their best players?
It's a known fact that Benfica are a selling club in Europe. In fact, most Portuguese clubs are. The Primeira Liga is technically the seventh-best league in Europe - behind the big five and even Russia.
Benfica are the most successful club in Portugal with 36 league titles. But they've still played the transfer market and made the most of it by selling their best players for big money to the tune of nearly half a billion euros! It's how they survive in the cut-throat world of football to balance the books.
So what if their finances were in the pink of health? If they had retained these players, how far would they have gone in the Champions League?
Formation: 4-2-3-1
Goalkeeper
Before he made his name at Atletico Madrid, Jan Oblak first won a domestic treble (Primeira Liga, Taca de Portugal and Taca da Liga) with Benfica in 2013/14.
He was only 17 at the time but a number of costly errors from first-choice goalkeeper Artur Moraes saw Jorge Jesus give young Oblak his chance.
Oblak did not look back. A series of clean sheets in his first few games saw him seal his place in the lineup. He was notably effective in blanking Porto and Juventus that season and walked away with the Best Goalkeeper of the Year award in spite of playing only half the season.
It wasn't long before Atletico Madrid came in with a €16m bid to make him the most expensive goalkeeper in La Liga history. Diego Simeone took him to the Vicente Calderon where he gave him a strong defence, allowing him to win the Ricardo Zamora Trophy twice (awarded to the goalkeeper with the lowest Goals-to-Games ratio).