The real Stadium of Light.With the Newcastle United being drawn against footballing aristocrats Benfica for their Europa League quarter final on Thursday, here is part two of my guide to Benfica.
In part one, I took a look at some aspects of Benfica’s history, including it’s links to Newcastle United and the North East in general. In this one, I will looking at things like the club’s current form, it’s coach Jorge Jesus, tactics, some of Benfica’s key players and that sort of thing.
Benfica and Newcastle United have never played each other competitively, so we can get that one out of the way pretty sharpish and take a look at their current form.
Current Form.
Benfica’s form in the Portuguese League is pretty predictable. If they’re doing well they’re top of the League, and if they’re doing not so well they are second, usually behind their fierce rivals, FC Porto. Their other great rivals in the Portuguese “Três Grandes” (Big three) are fellow Lisbon side Sporting Clube de Portugal, but they seem to be in a bit of a pickle at the moment, currently languishing in eighth in a sixteen team league. (more…)
“Out of many, one.”As Newcastle United’s next Europa League opponents are the Portuguese footballing aristocrats of Benfica, I have been inspired to write a two part guide to the club.
In this first part, I will taking a brief look at the history of the club, as well as taking a look at the links between Benfica, Newcastle United and the North East in general. There aren’t a huge amount and Thursday will be the first time the teams have ever met in a competitive game, but they are quite interesting nonetheless.
History, facts and stats.
The club known as Sport Lisboa e Benfica, or simply “Benfica” was formed by 18 year old footballer Cosme Damião on 28 February 1904. In their 109 year history since then they have become Portugal’s most successful club, with 32 Portuguese League titles, 24 Portuguese Cups plus 3 Campeonato de Portugal titles (the old version of the cup), 4 Portuguese League Cups, 4 Portuguese Super Cups and not least, 2 European Cups won in 1960 and 1961. (more…)
Only 90 minutes from the quarter finals?Venue: St James’ Park, Newcastle. Date: Thurs 14th March, 2013. Kick off: 8.05pm. Referee: Deniz Aytekin (Germany). UK TV: ESPN.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our “match banter” feature for this evening’s Europa League (home) second leg against Dagestan’s finest, the Guus Hiddink managed Anzhi Makhachkala.
With the first leg in Russia ending as a 0-0 bore draw, even a draw would see us through to the quarter finals, as long as it is a score draw. However it shouldn’t be forgotten that the last time we were in Europe, we fell at this very hurdle to another Dutch old master, Louis van Gaal. His AZ Alkmaar side knocked us out on penalties after the the two legs ended 4-4 on aggregate. He hoping we don’t see a repeat of that!
Speaking in the run up to the game, Hiddink was full of the usual pre match compliments, giving his thumbs up for the new style Newcastle. He said of the team:(more…)
