In Baróti's second season, Benfica invests heavily to strengthened their choices of forwards, signing Fernando Folha from Boavista, plus the Yugoslavian Zoran Filipovic from abroad.

In the second half of the season, Benfica kept chasing Sporting in the title race, with the distance fluctuating several times, the shortest at three points, the longest at seven.

Benfica started the new season as reigning champions, after Lajos Baróti led the team to their first league title in three years.

[21] In October, Benfica's league performance remained poor, with another away loss in match-day 7, followed one week later, by a 1–1 draw in the Lisbon derby with Sporting.

[26] In the opening match-day of March, Benfica drops more points in an away draw with Estoril Praia, but Sporting had also drawn on the same day, so no changes occurred in the table.

[24] In mid March, Benfica won one-nil in the quarter-final of the Portuguese Cup in Estádio das Antas with an extra-time goal from Nené.

[24] A week later, they defeated Rio Ave and cut the distance to Sporting to five points, due to their rivals loss in the same match-day.

In the second half, Manuel Fernandes inadvertently kicked Bento in the head, with the keeper responding by throwing the ball to his face.

[25] On match-day 24, Benfica recovers two points in the title race, when Sporting loses to Portimonense and they beat Belenenses at home.

[27] However, any hope of retaining the title was crushed when Benfica drew with Vitória de Setúbal on 2 May, while Sporting won on the same day.