Belenenses vs Benfica

Ground Number 186: Estadio do Restalo

Belenenses 0-5 Benfica

Friday 5th February

Primiera Liga

Attendance: 13,109 (Approx 10,000 away)

Admission: €35

Says, Lisbon has been on the hit-list for a long while now, and in footballing terms this would be an ideal weekend to make my first pilgrimage to Portugal. The weekend's fixtures would encompass a Sporting CP home game, whom have been topping the league table all season as they seek to capture the title for the first time since 2002, while a local derby would arrive in the form of the "third-wheel" club in the city, Belenenses, whom would host the super giants of the city. 

Quite ludicrously, the league fixtures for this weekend weren't officially scheduled until a week before we were flying out. And inevitably/tragically enough, Sporting CP's home game against Rio Ave would fall victim to being a Monday night kick-off, thus this derby on the small Eastern coastal side of the city would be our only groundhop of the weekend (we decided we couldn't be arsed with Vitoria Setubal an hour down the road the following day). 

Belenenses are obviously a minor player in the city, being shoehorned amongst two fanatically supported clubs whom average over 90,000 fans between them in a city with only half a million population. They are however only one of the five teams in history who have ensnared the Portuguese title; their solitary triumph marked all the way back in 1946. I won't offend your knowledge by listing whom the other teams are; the title is notable for not having ever been won outside the cities of Porto or Lisbon. 

They did however managed to make the group stages of the Europa League this season and manage to draw in modest crowds that range from 1,500-3,500 for most league fixtures. 

On this evening though there didn't appear to be the huge increase in home support as one would expect. This is probably due to the pricing. On Stadiumguide website I had read that you could expect to pay between €8-12 for a standard ticket. What did we actually pay on the evening? 35 fucking Euros! With Benfica's enormous support you'd have expected most of the 25k all-seated stadium, nestled beautifully near the coast with a spectacular backdrop, to have been sold out. However, it was barely half-full, even in spite of an away following that must have numerically reached 5 figures. 

The game went par the course of what you'd expect from a David v Goliath clash. Belenenses started very brightly and their wasn't a huge amount of difference between the quality of the sides in the opening 45 minutes, however, a soft goalkeeping error enabled the visitors a goal lead going into the interval. The second half Benfica's prowess came into fruition and they wiped the floor with their hosts. Some of the goals were inaugurated out of Conference Premier standard defending but Benfica's football was a joy to behold at times. With Sporting only managing a goalless draw on Monday night, their superior goal difference has meant they have overhauled them at the summit for the first time this season. Just goes to show that in leagues like this it really is important to fully go for it and push on once you've achieved the safeguard of knowing you've already secured the three points. Benfica carried on searching even at 5 goals up, leaving an anxious Paul Sansum to bite his finger nails, having placed an audacious bet on Benfica to win 5-0 at 30-1. Bonus for him!

The atmosphere was absolutely fantastic. Benfica fans really did get behind their boys all game and treated us to intermittent spells of pyro and strobelights. Lovely stuff. I've got some good videos of their fans, including a belting direct version of the "let's go fucking mental" that I have posted below.
It's a shame that the Sagres beer inside the stadium was 0.0% and quite simply the worst alcohol free beer that's ever touched my lips. While the greedy opportunists stung us by hiking their prices up by 3 times the usual, and there was a general lack of quality infrastructure inside the stadium, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening.