The man with the long gray hair is no longer on the sidelines.

Jorge Jesus had shaped the traditional Lisbon club Benfica more than any other coach over the past 13 years.

But at the end of December it was finally over: after a 0-3 defeat in the round of 16 against arch-rivals FC Porto, Jesus resigned and thus prematurely ended his second Benfica tenure.

Club president Rui Costa appointed second-team coach Nélson Veríssimo as caretaker manager.

The hope was also to find an internal solution for the coaching position, which would also revitalize Benfica's youth academy.

Veríssimo may lack the charisma and emotionality of his charismatic predecessor, but he knows the potential of the in-house football school very well.

The 44-year-old former centre-back has been with Benfica since 2012.

He was on the bench as assistant coach to then-head coach Bruno Lage (now Wolverhampton Wanderers) when the Lisbon club last won the league in May 2019.

And he then led Benfica B to first place in the second Portuguese football league.

The offspring have to go

Benfica's in-house football school in Seixal, in the south of the Portuguese capital, had temporarily developed into a veritable gold mine for the traditional club over the past decade.

Players like Bernardo Silva, João Cancelo, Ruben Dias (all Manchester United), João Felix (Atlético Madrid) and Renato Sanches (OSC Lille) switched to top European clubs at a young age for a lot of money.

However, Benfica have had to wait for almost two years for a lucrative transfer, and this is clearly reflected in the traditional club's coffers.

In the first six months of the current season, the club had to accept losses of more than 30 million euros, although the successful participation in the Champions League brought in significantly more money than in the previous season.

When looking for the right line-up, Veríssimo tries to rely more on their own offspring.

A promising contender for a starting XI in the Champions League quarter-finals against Liverpool is 20-year-old striker Gonçalo Ramos, who hardly made an appearance under Jorge Jesus.

Ramos has played regularly since Veríssimo took the helm and has scored six times in the last ten league games.

problems at headquarters

He could be joined by Darwin Núñez, currently Benfica's most dangerous attacking player.

Darwin scored the winning goal in the Champions League round of 16 at Ajax Amsterdam and has struck 27 times in 34 games this season, four of them in the premier club.

The Uruguay international came to Lisbon from Spanish club Almería in the summer of 2020 for 24 million euros, the highest amount that a Portuguese club has ever spent on a transfer.

In the front line of attack, Portugal's record champions have more options to offer in Haris Seferovic and Ukraine international striker Roman Yaremchuk.

However, the midfield is causing bigger problems.

Julian Weigl is in sixth position, but he lacks a strong partner at his side.

João Mário arrived from Sporting Lisbon before the season but has only been able to make sporadic appearances so far.

Moroccan international Adel Taarabt could therefore move into central midfield against Liverpool.

In the sights of tax investigators

Not only the more than 60,000 spectators in the Luz Stadium in Lisbon will be dreaming of a win against Jürgen Klopp's team.

With more than 240,000 members, Benfica is one of the largest football clubs in the world and has around 2.2 million fans in Portugal alone - more than a fifth of the population.

However, moments of happiness have been rare for the Benfica universe recently.

In addition to financial problems, the club has been targeted by tax inspectors: Former Benfica officials, including long-time club president Luís Filipe Vieira, are facing charges of fraud and money laundering.

Things aren't going well in sport either: the club has been eliminated from the cup.

The League Cup final was lost to city rivals Sporting.

And after the 2-3 defeat in Braga last Friday, Benfica not only had to give up the race for the championship, but probably also second place in the table, which would guarantee direct qualification for the upcoming Champions League season.

The premier class is the last straw Benfica is clinging to.

This is probably one of the reasons why the club is trying to silence the rumors before the important game against Liverpool this Tuesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on Amazon Prime) that the German soccer coach Roger Schmidt is to take over as coach in the Portuguese capital in the summer .

In May 1962, Benfica won the European Cup after a dramatic 5-3 final against Real Madrid.

Almost 60 years after the last European title win, the traditional club is now dreaming of a big surprise against Liverpool.

The statistics give no hope: since the start of the Champions League almost 30 years ago, Benfica have never made it into the semi-finals.