My assessment is that Benfica will be there for the taking | OneFootball

Next up in our Champions League campaign is Sport Lisboa e Benfica or as they’re more commonly known, just plain Benfica.

Whilst Newcastle United and Benfica clashed as recently as the summer of 2022 in the Eusebio Cup, that was a pre-season friendly.

The only competitive fixture between the two clubs was at the quarter-final stage of the Europa League in 2013.

After the 3-1 reverse in Lisbon, Newcastle led 1-0 until the dying embers thanks to a Pappis Cisse strike in the return fixture at St James Park, before Eduardo Salvio’s 90th minute equaliser sealed Benfica’s progress to the semi finals, where they overcame Turkey’s Fenerbahce before eventually succumbing to Rafa Benitez’ Chelsea in the final.

Founded on 28 February 1904, as Sport Lisboa, Benfica is the most decorated club in Portugal, with a record 38 Primeira Liga titles and a record haul of 34 Portuguese domestic cups, 26 being equivalent to the FA cup and 8 being the equivalent of the League cup.

Since the 2008/09 season, the club’s famous red shirt has displayed three stars above the crest, with each star representing ten league titles won by the club, the most recent of which was won in 2023.

European pedigree

Although their last European trophy was in 1962 when they retained the European Cup, having become the first Portuguese team to lift Europe’s most prestigious trophy the previous year, in 1961. Since then, Benfica has been to a further five European Cup finals, one UEFA Cup final and two Europa League Finals, and although they’ve lost all eight, reaching those ten European finals is a feat that no other Portuguese side have been able to match.

Since 1954, Benfica have played their home fixtures at the Esatdio da Luz, a ground that in the mid-1980s boasted the largest capacity in Europe and third largest in the world, an incredible 120,000. That stadium was demolished between 2002 and 2003, with construction of the new Estádio da Luz (Stadium of Light) finalised in 2003, a few years after an English football club had shamefully appropriated the name of this famous stadium. The Anglicised name has never conjured the same romanticism associated with its namesake in the Portuguese capital…

Over the years, Benfica has had a string of high-profile managers, such as former England and Italy managers Sven-Goran Eriksson and Giovanni Trappatoni. Benfica has also had two English managers, John Mortimore and Jimmy Hagan, both of whom presided over domestic success at the club, Hagan winning three league titles and the Portuguese cup during his three-year tenure that began in 1970, a period during which Benfica won 29 successive league matches, another Portuguese record.

If you’re looking for connections with Newcastle United, former manager Graeme Souness also managed Benfica before his time at St James Park, between 1997 and 1999, during what was an incredibly barren period for the Lisbon side, with no trophies being on show at the Estadio da Luz between the year of Souness’ arrival and 2004.

Jose Mourinho

In the past month, Jose Mourinho has signed a two year contract as Head Coach of the Eagles, returning to the club after 25 years, having held his first managerial position at the Estadio da Luz in September 2000 when he replaced Jupp Heynckes.

At that time, it was reported that Sir Bobby Robson offered him the assistant manager’s role at St James’ Park and given the wily Portuguese went on to routinely plunder trophies across the continent, who knows what might have been if that had come to pass?

Despite his managerial success corresponding with some exceptionally lean times for Newcastle United, Mourinho has had limited success at St James Park whilst sitting in the away dug out, winning only three times in twelve visits, the most recent being in a behind closed doors fixture when he was manager of Spurs during the Covid pandemic in the summer of 2020.

Whether Mourinho’s relatively poor record at St James’ Park will be relevant or not this coming Tuesday, it is the case that whilst Benfica have started the season unbeaten in the Portuguese league, they’re currently languishing fourth from the bottom of the Champions League table two fixtures in, having already lost to Azerbaijan’s Qarabag FK and Mourinho’s former club at Stamford Bridge.

My assessment is that Benfica will be there for the taking and under the lights with a raucous crowd in attendance, Newcastle United will prove too strong for the Portuguese.