Fernando Riera arrived in Lisbon in October 1962 as one of world football's coming men, fresh from taking Chile to third place at the World Cup they had just hosted. He already knew Portugal well, having coached Belenenses in the 1950s, and he was handed the job of following Béla Guttmann.

He did it well. Benfica won the 1962-63 Primeira Divisão, clinching it with a round to spare after an 8-1 win in May 1963, and reached a third consecutive European Cup final, losing 2-1 to Milan at Wembley after Eusébio had put them ahead. Riera left for Universidad Católica, returned in 1966 and won the championship again in 1966-67, holding off a strong Académica, before departing in November 1967.

A cerebral, technically minded coach who wrote and taught extensively, Riera is better known in Chile — where he is regarded as the father of the modern national team and mentor to a line of coaches including Manuel Pellegrini — than in Portugal. But two league titles and a European Cup final in three seasons make him one of Benfica's quietly effective appointments.