Benfica Women

The section itself traces back to 14 May 1972, when it took the floor for the first time under a captain remembered simply as Dolores. It rose through the 1980s, then folded in 1993/94 when the money ran out, came back briefly in 1996/97, and finally returned for good in 2018/19, climbing straight back into the top flight the following season.

Since that return there has been little room for anyone else at the top of the table. In 2022/23 they swept all three, the "Tripla," and did it again in 2025/26.

Their reach now goes beyond Portugal's borders. In 2023/24, under coach João Alexandre Florêncio, the same season the Triple was completed, Benfica reached the semi-finals of the EHF European Cup, a stage no Portuguese women's handball club had reached before. It followed two straight quarter-final runs the previous seasons, so the European progress reads as a build rather than a surprise. On the domestic side, the closest thing to resistance comes from Madeira SAD, the club Benfica have met in recent Taça de Portugal finals, though the fixture carries no name of its own.