1980–81 S.L. Benfica season the club. Benfica's league campaign started with seven consecutive wins, before a first loss with Porto in the Clássico. A few days later, Benfica wins their first Supertaça de Portugal. In the Cup Winners' Cup, Benfica eliminated Altay, Dinamo Zagreb and Malmö in the first three rounds. In late November, Benfica draws with Sporting and three weeks later, with Vitória de Setúbal, lapping the first half in first place with a three-point lead. In the following weeks, Benfica won three more matches before losing another point in a draw with Penafiel, which cut his lead to two points. They reacted
FC Porto a conflict between the technical staff and president Américo de Sá, which ended with the resignation of Pedroto and his replacement by Hermann Stessl. In December 1981, Porto overcame Benfica to win the inaugural staging of the Portuguese Super Cup, the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. Pedroto returned in April 1982 by the hand of the club's newly elected president Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa, who had resigned as director of football, two years before, in solidarity with the coach. The previous month, Porto fell again in the Cup Winners' Cup quarter-finals against one of the eventual finalists, but needed only