1978–79 S.L. Benfica season three losses in a month, severely hindered the title race. Nevertheless, despite dropping out of the UEFA Cup at the hands of Borussia Mönchengladbach, domestically, Benfica won all league matches for three months, reaching the first place in the league. A home draw with Porto stopped their winning run, but it was a loss to Marítimo that compromised their title race. That loss followed another with Braga for the Taça de Portugal. Despite dropping points again in March, Benfica kept an entertaining battle with Porto, which came to an end when they drew again in match-day 29. Two consecutive seasons
1985–86 S.L. Benfica season match with Salgueiros, which had been postponed in February because of the pitch conditions. They drew 1–1 and lost points in title race. In April, Benfica received Sporting in what was labelled the D-Day for the league. Despite leading the league for most of second round, they lost 2–1, which allowed Porto to catch them in the first place, with a better head-to-head record. Mortimore said: "Sporting had two chances and converted them both, we had lost the league". On the last day of the campaign, Porto beat last classified, Sporting da Covilhã and won the league, while Benfica lost