Benfica go into Thursday's meeting with Celtic on 149 Europa League matches, and Celtic will be their 150th. That sits alongside only 16 appearances in the competition, 75 wins and 251 goals, a run that is far denser than the appearance total suggests.
Benfica's competition numbers
The spread is unusual. Benfica's Europa League history has been built across relatively few entries, yet the club has already won 75 of those matches and scored 251 times. Even the disciplinary record stands out, with only 9 red cards across 149 games.
That makes the profile look less like a team passing through the competition and more like one that has kept returning with real weight. Rafa Silva does not need to be part of that story for it to work, because the wider record already carries the point.
Cardozo's place in the record book
The individual marker belongs to O. Cardozo. He is Benfica's all-time top scorer in the Europa League with 22 goals, ahead of Nuno Gomes on 12 and Di María on 10. Simão Sabrosa, Pizzi and Rafa are next on 9.
Luisão's 58 appearances still lead the club's games-played list, which tells you how long Benfica's best European runs have been sustained by the same core names. Cardozo sits at the centre of the scoring record, though, and that is still the benchmark the club will carry into the Celtic game.
Thursday's match gives Benfica a clean checkpoint: 150 Europa League matches if they face Celtic as scheduled, with the club's record already shaped by 75 wins, 251 goals and Cardozo's 22-goal mark.
Written by Sam Whitfield with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →
