Estádio da Luz

The Estádio da Luz, officially named Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica, is a multi-purpose stadium located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is used mostly for association football matches, hosting the home games of Portuguese club Benfica, its owner.

Opened on 25 October 2003 with an exhibition match between Benfica and Uruguayan club Nacional, it replaced the original Estádio da Luz, which had 120,000 seats. The seating capacity of the new stadium is currently set at 64,642. The stadium was designed by HOK Sport Venue Event and had a construction cost of €162 million.

A UEFA category four stadium and one of the biggest stadiums by capacity in Europe (the biggest in Portugal), Estádio da Luz hosted several matches of the UEFA Euro 2004, including its final, as well as the 2014 and 2020 finals of the UEFA Champions League. It was elected the most beautiful stadium of Europe in a 2014 online poll by L'Équipe. By its fifteenth birthday, Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica Luz had welcomed more than 17 million spectators. The stadium is one of the potential venues for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, which Portugal will co-host along with Morocco and Spain.

Naming
While the previous Benfica stadium was also officially named "Estádio do Sport Lisboa e Benfica", both the old and the new stadia are invariably referred to by their unofficial name, Estádio da Luz. Luz is the name of the neighborhood the stadium was built on, on the border between the parishes of Benfica and Carnide, which itself derives its name from the nearby Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Luz (Church of Our Lady of Light). This unofficial name caught on soon after the original stadium's construction; the people of Lisbon used to simply call it a Luz ("the Light"). Therefore, the stadium's common name became "Estádio da Luz", which is usually anglicised to "Stadium of Light". This translation, however, could be argued to be inaccurate, since Luz refers not to "light" but to the original address of the stadium: Estrada da Luz ("Road of Light").

Characteristics
Architect Damon Lavelle, from HOK Sport Venue Event (now Populous), designed the stadium to focus on light and transparency. Its polycarbonate roof allows the sunlight to penetrate the stadium in order to illuminate it. The roof, which is supported by tie-beams of four steel arches, seems to float on the underlying tribunes. The arches are 43 metres (141 feet) high and help define the look of the stadium, after having been shaped to be similar to the wavy profile of its three tiers. According to Lavelle, the seating capacity may be increased up to 80,000.

Opening game
In the opening match, Benfica beat Uruguayan side Nacional 2–1 with goals from Nuno Gomes, who became the first ever scorer at the Estádio da Luz.

Highest attendance official match
On round 33 of the 2016–17 Primeira Liga, in a match where Benfica were crowned national champions for a fourth consecutive season (a new achievement for them), Estádio da Luz recorded its best attendance in official matches.

2019–20 UEFA Champions League
Quarter-finals

Final

Portugal national football team matches
The following national team matches were held in the stadium.

Benfica matches in UEFA competitions

 * 2003–04 UEFA Cup
 * 3–1 Molde
 * 1–0 Rosenborg
 * 0–0 Inter Milan
 * 2004–05
 * 1–0 Anderlecht (UEFA Champions League)
 * 2–0 Dukla Banská Bystrica (UEFA Cup)
 * 4–2 Heerenveen
 * 2–0 Dinamo Zagreb
 * 1–1 CSKA Moscow
 * 2005–06 UEFA Champions League
 * 1–0 Lille
 * 0–1 Villarreal
 * 2–1 Manchester United
 * 1–0 Liverpool
 * 0–0 Barcelona
 * 2006–07
 * 3–0 Austria Wien (UEFA Champions League)
 * 0–1 Manchester United
 * 3–0 Celtic
 * 3–1 Copenhagen
 * 1–0 Dinamo București (UEFA Cup)
 * 3–1 Paris Saint-Germain
 * 0–0 Espanyol
 * 2007–08
 * 2–1 Copenhagen (UEFA Champions League)
 * 0–1 Shakhtar Donetsk
 * 1–0 Celtic
 * 1–1 Milan
 * 1–0 Nürnberg (UEFA Cup)
 * 1–2 Getafe
 * 2008–09 UEFA Cup
 * 2–0 Napoli
 * 0–2 Galatasaray
 * 0–1 Metalist Kharkiv
 * 2009–10 UEFA Europa League
 * 4–0 Vorskla
 * 2–0 BATE Borisov
 * 5–0 Everton
 * 2–1 AEK Athens
 * 4–0 Hertha Berlin
 * 1–1 Marseille
 * 2–1 Liverpool
 * 2010–11
 * 2–0 Hapoel (UEFA Champions League)
 * 4–3 Lyon
 * 1–2 Schalke 04
 * 2–1 Stuttgart (UEFA Europa League)
 * 2–1 Paris Saint-Germain
 * 4–1 PSV Eindhoven
 * 2–1 Braga
 * 2011–12 UEFA Champions League
 * 2–0 Trabzonspor
 * 3–1 Twente
 * 1–1 Manchester United
 * 1–1 Basel
 * 1–0 Oțelul Galați
 * 2–0 Zenit
 * 0–1 Chelsea
 * 2012–13
 * 0–2 Barcelona (UEFA Champions League)
 * 2–0 Spartak Moscow
 * 2–1 Celtic
 * 2–1 Bayer Leverkusen (UEFA Europa League)
 * 1–0 Bordeaux
 * 3–1 Newcastle United
 * 3–1 Fenerbahçe
 * 2013–14
 * 2–0 Anderlecht (UEFA Champions League)
 * 1–1 Olympiakos
 * 2–1 Paris Saint-Germain
 * 3–0 PAOK (UEFA Europa League)
 * 2–2 Tottenham
 * 2–0 AZ Alkmaar
 * 2–1 Juventus
 * 2014–15 UEFA Champions League
 * 0–2 Zenit
 * 1–0 Monaco
 * 0–0 Bayer Leverkusen
 * 2015–16 UEFA Champions League
 * 2–0 Astana
 * 2–1 Galatasaray
 * 1–2 Atlético Madrid
 * 1–0 Zenit
 * 2–2 Bayern Munich
 * 2016–17 UEFA Champions League
 * 1–1 Beşiktaş
 * 1–0 Dynamo Kyiv
 * 1–2 Napoli
 * 1–0 Borussia Dortmund
 * 2017–18 UEFA Champions League
 * 1–2 CSKA Moscow
 * 0–1 Manchester United
 * 0–2 Basel
 * 2018–19
 * 1–0 Fenerbahçe (UEFA Champions League)
 * 1–1 PAOK
 * 0–2 Bayern Munich
 * 1–1 Ajax
 * 1–0 AEK Athens
 * 0–0 Galatasaray (UEFA Europa League)
 * 3–0 Dinamo Zagreb
 * 4–2 Eintracht Frankfurt
 * 2019–20
 * 1–2 RB Leipzig (UEFA Champions League)
 * 2–1 Lyon
 * 3–0 Zenit
 * 3–3 Shakhtar Donetsk (UEFA Europa League)
 * 2020–21 UEFA Europa League
 * 3–0 Standard Liège
 * 3–3 Rangers
 * 4–0 Lech Poznań
 * 2021–22 UEFA Champions League
 * 2–0 Spartak Moscow
 * 2–1 PSV Eindhoven
 * 3–0 Barcelona
 * 0–4 Bayern Munich
 * 2–0 Dynamo Kyiv
 * 2–2 Ajax
 * 1–3 Liverpool
 * 2022–23 UEFA Champions League
 * 4–1 Midtjylland
 * 3–0 Dynamo Kyiv
 * 1–0 Maccabi Haifa
 * 1–1 Paris Saint-Germain
 * 4–3 Juventus
 * 5–1 Club Brugge
 * 0–2 Inter Milan
 * 2023–24
 * 0–2 Red Bull Salzburg (UEFA Champions League)
 * 0–1 Real Sociedad
 * 2–1 Toulouse (UEFA Europa League)
 * 2–2 Rangers
 * 2–1 Marseille
 * All-time statistics
 * 113 matches: 70 wins, 21 draws, 22 losses
 * 192 goals scored, 99 goals conceded