Portugal will have three teams in the Champions League group stage for the third consecutive season, after Sporting Braga passed the play-offs on Wednesday to join Benfica and FC Porto.
By eliminating Greek side Panathinaikos, Braga secured a place in the competition’s group stage for the third time in their history, repeating what they had already achieved in 2010/11 and 2012/13.
In the group phase, whose first round will be played on September 19 and 20, the Minho team will be joined by national champion Benfica and runner-up FC Porto, who had direct access to that phase.
This will also be the eighth time that Portugal will have a trio of representatives in the main European club competition, and the third in a row, after FC Porto, Sporting and Benfica have made up the continental ‘elite’ in the previous two seasons. .
Since the first edition under the Champions League format, in 1992/93, the three ‘big’ players wore the Portuguese ‘colors’ at the same time in the 2006/07 season -the first to feature a trio Portuguese in the group stage – 2007/08, 2016/17 and 2017/18.
In the 2012/13 season, as it is now, Portugal was represented in the group stage by FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting de Braga.
In the 31 previous editions of the ‘million-dollar’ competition, only once had a Portuguese club appeared in the group stage, in this case in 2002/03, when the then national champion, Sporting, and the runner-up, Boavista, they were eliminated in the third qualifying round. , at the time of the last access round.
FC Porto was the only Portuguese representative on eight occasions, while Benfica competed ‘only’ in two seasons and Sporting in one.
On the other hand, the presence of two Portuguese teams in the group stage was recorded 11 times, with FC Porto and Sporting (1997/98 and 2008/09), FC Porto and Benfica (1998/99, 2005/06, 2011 / 12, 2013/14, 2015/16 and 2018/19), FC Porto and Boavista (1999/00 and 2001/02), and Benfica and Sporting de Braga (2010/11).
The draw for the 2023/24 Champions League group stage is scheduled for Thursday from 5:00 p.m. (Lisbon time), in Monaco.
The first round of the contest will take place on September 19 and 20.
Source: TSF
