As Rangers prepare to step out in the famous Estadio de Luz on Thursday night Steven Gerrard and his charges will be well aware of the £90m challenge which awaits them with Benfica.
That is – more or less – how much Benfica have spent reshaping their squad into a force at home and abroad this summer with a plethora of talent coming into the Lisbon club.
That significant investment has lifted Benfica to another level this season with the Portuguese club winning five in five in the Primeira Liga as well as their opening two Europa League group games.
The only blot on Benfica’s otherwise impressive start to the season is 2-1 defeat in a Champions League qualifier to PAOK in mid-September.
That result shows that they can be got at, but Rangers will be facing a transformed Benfica side from that which lost the league by five points to Porto – Rangers’ foes from last year’s group stage – last season.
Amongst the remarkable spend includes the likes of highly-rated Brazilian winger Everton Soares, who finally moves to Europe from Gremio and is one to watch on Thursday night.
Benfica also splashed out £21m to bring 21-year-old Uruguayan striker Darwin Nunez to the club from Almeria.
Since joining Nunez has four goals in eight games, including a hattrick against Lech Poznan in their opening day match of the Europa League group stage.
Amongst the signings also include Nicolas Otamendi of Manchester City fame (£13.5m) and Jan Vertonghen, who joined after his contract expired at Tottenham.
Another Brazilian winger in Pedrinho also joined the club (£16.2m) whilst highly-rated German forward Luca Waldschmidt joined to the tune of £13.5m from Freiburg [Transfermarkt].
In total nine players joined the club in a productive summer with the bones of £90m being spent to upgrade their squad.
With Rangers now going 18 games unbeaten at the start of the season, this is set to be the biggest test of Steven Gerrard’s side so far this campaign.
