The pre-season started on 21 July with medical exams, followed by a trip to Switzerland the next day, where the team would play in the Philips Tournament. The location was also chosen so that they could do altitude training. Afterwards they played in the Teresa Herrera Trophy and Trofeo Colombino. Their presentation game was on 3 August with Vitória de Setúbal. Due to the events of 31 May in Braga, Benfica's first home game was played in Estádio Nacional. Skovadahl stint at Benfica was a short-lived. Losses against Setúbal, Marítimo and Desportivo de Chaves led to immense pressure from the fans and four months into the season, on 28 November, he was sacked. He left the team 12 rounds into the season already trailing leader Porto by five points. His assistant Toni accepted the invitation to lead the team, in his first experience as manager. In his first game, he lost three-nil at home to Sporting for the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira. With little chance of renewing the league title, Benfica focused on their European campaign. In the first round, a 4-0 win against the violent Partizani Tirana saw UEFA expel the Albanians and void the second leg. Afterwards, they knocked-out Aarhus and Anderlecht, reaching the semi-finals with Steaua București, the winners of the 1985–86 European Cup. For the game with Steaua, Toni travelled to Glasgow and asked Graeme Souness for the videotapes of Rangers's games with them. He concluded the threat was Gheorghe Hagi and he needed to be annulled, a task that fell to Shéu, which he perform without mistakes. In the second leg, Rui Águas scored twice to put Benfica into their first European Cup final since 1968. The three-year project of a "European Benfica" produced his first result in his first season. Before the final against PSV Eindhoven, Benfica lost Diamantino, a key player in the team that got severely injured and missed the final. In the final, Benfica also saw Rui Águas leave the pitch in the second half due to injury, forcing Toni to use Wando as forward. Another problem was the brand new socks that the team wore that caused the boots to slide out, with significant problems in traction for the players.