Newcastle United will take on Portuguese giants Benfica at the
in a pre-season friendly this summer.
The Magpies will face Benfica for the Eusébio Cup on Tuesday, 26th July, with an 8pm (local time) kick-off.
The Eusébio Cup is an invitational match hosted by Benfica, with Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Ajax and São Paulo among the teams to have taken part in previous years. The Eusébio Cup is a pre-season-friendly football match hosted by Portuguese club S.L. Benfica. It has been played mostly at their home stadium, Estádio da Luz, with the two exceptions being the 2015 and 2018 editions (played at the Estadio BBVA and at the Estádio Algarve, respectively). The two-team competition was inaugurated in 2008 and is named after Portuguese international and former Benfica player Eusébio, who presented the trophy to the winning team until 2013, before his death in January 2014. There were plans to extend the number of participants to four, a move that Eusébio himself was in favour of, but no changes were ever made in that regard.
Newcastle United’s only competitive meetings with Benfica came at the quarter-final stage of the Europa League in the 2012/13 season, with Alan Pardew’s side losing the first leg 3-1 in Lisbon before drawing 1-1 in the second leg to bow out of the competition.
Last season, Benfica finished third in Portugal’s Primeira Liga and reached the last eight of the Champions League.
Tickets will soon be on sale at https://nufc.co.uk