Benfica will wear red alternative shorts for their away Champions League game against Real Sociedad on Wednesday evening – the look has been added to the club’s 2023-24 kits page.
All-red has some continental heritage for the Eagles – their most recent European Cup final appearances saw them in all-red mashups while it was seen as far back as a 1969 meeting against Ajax’s first-choice kit.
Perhaps that was a factor in them opting to go with such a set-up for their first dedicated European strip, provided by adidas for the 1999-2000 Uefa Cup campaign.
Wins over Romanian side Dinamo București and PAOK of Greece earned Benfica a place in the third round but a 7-0 first-leg loss away to Celta Vigo hastened their departure from the competition.
It seems quaint now to note that the European kit followed the same design as the home – officially known by adidas as ‘Merengue’ – but with black as a tertiary colour rather than gold and different panel colouring. We don’t think there were any instances of the red shorts being used as a change set with the domestic home shirt.
The kits side by side also demonstrate the difference between domestic and European sponsorship rules, with the Telecel logo on the front having to be restricted to a smaller area.
For 2000-01, the shirt was retained for another Uefa Cup tilt, this time with the logo of Telecel’s NetC internet service, but they were knocked out in the first round after losing to Swedish side Halmstad.
No S in the end of Halmstad
Thank you Anton, that has been fixed!