On a two day trip to Lisbon, Emdad Rahman found time to visit the Estádio da Luz e Benfica.
Football in Portugal is one of the country’s most important pastimes, and the Estádio da Luz e Benfica is one of the best stadiums in Europe and the home of one of the world’s most historic clubs. The playing surface has seen some of the greatest players in the world take to the stage for As Águias (The Eagles). Eusébio, Rui Manuel Costa, Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola, Ángel Di María and Nicolás Gaitán have all mastered their trade whilst playing for Benfica.
A group of ex-pupils of the Real Casa Pía de Lisboa founded the club during a meeting held in the back room of a Lisbon pharmacy on 28th February 1904. The colours chosen were to be red and white, its emblem an eagle and its motto E Pluribus Unum (Out of One, Many). In 1919 Benfica became the first club on the Iberian Peninsula to stage a floodlit match.
Fast forward and under the watchful eye of the legendary Hungarian Bela Guttmann, Benfica won the Portuguese title in 1960 and 1961. In 1961 Benfica picked up their first European Cup after beating Barcelona 3-2 in the final. They went onto successfully defend their crown the following season when the amazing Eusébio scored a brace as Os Encarnados (The Reds) came back twice to hammer Real Madrid 5-3. Benfica is said to be the only club in the world whose official anthem is sung by a tenor, Luís Piçarra, and the classic musician António Vitorino de Almeida wrote a symphony to commemorate the club’s first 100 years.
The home of Benfica is more popularly known as the “Stadium of Light” (not to be confused with Sunderland AFC). The Estádio da Luz is found in the “Light area” of three Lisbon parishes – Benfica, Carnide and São Domingos de Benfica and is named after the “Our Lady of the Light” Church. The old Estádio da Luz was knocked down and rebuilt in time to host various matches in the Euro 2004 Championships – in the year of the Club’s centenary. It was the venue for three group matches, the quarter-final between Portugal and England (2-2), and the final between Greece and Portugal which Portugal lost to Greece (1-0).
Construction works started in 2002, and Benfica played their last game at the partly demolished old stadium in March 2003. The first team to play at the new stadium on 25th October 2003 were Uruguayan Club Nacional, who lost 2-1 to the home team.
The new Estádio da Luz is more compact than its predecessor. It has four tiers and holds 65,000 within its all-seater capacity. This makes the Estádio da Luz the biggest stadium in Portugal. The stadium hosted the 2014 Champions League final. Let’s hope this wonderful stadium continues to shine its light on players and supporters for another 100 years!