Thousands of people were present at Rossio de Viseu, where cars were prohibited, painting it red and echoing love songs for Benfica, for winning the 38th title of the 1st Football League.
Dressed strictly, with the shirt and scarf of the Benfica champion 2022/23, registering the conquest of the 38th championship, Maria de Lurdes Andrade assumed that she bought it “with confidence, because you have to believe and trust”.
“I always trust my club, because Benfica never loses. They either win or learn something”, explained Maria de Lurdes Andrade, who, for as long as she can remember, celebrates the club’s championships “always in Rossio, after the rounds”.
Born into a family of sports fans, she became a Benfica fan “just to be against it”, but “soon” she stayed, “because the club only brings happiness” and “there have been many” throughout its “tens of years”. .
Maria de Lurdes Andrade stopped at Rossio after “burning some diesel” around town honking, then “started to get a lot of traffic” and parked, but the town’s central plaza already had supporters during the match.
Praça da República, commonly called Rossio, in Viseu, is the scene, every year, of the celebrations of the champion club, and the only café in the square was filled with fans to watch the game. After the final whistle, in less than a minute the terrace was clean.
“It had to be, for security reasons, if the night did not end without tables and chairs”, justified the manager Filipe Ferreira, who admitted to Lusa that he had “asked for a reinforcement of beer barrels” to sell on Saturday night.
Anabela Oliveira, fan of the “eagle [de borracha] chest”, said that he had not missed “any Benfica celebration” since he could remember, as well as the Fernandes Santos family, who, despite the rain and two small children, cared for Rossio.
“The rain is very missed and necessary and blesses the party. A wet party is a blessed party”, defended Fátima Fernandes, who did not move, even when the rain began to get stronger.
The husband Pedro Santos, with four-year-old Francisco on his lap, and accompanied by Matias, nine, said that “children have to feel from a young age how it is to celebrate the victories” of Benfica.
“Benfica is our great love. First there is the family, but then there is Benfica”, reacted Pedro Santos, while recalling that “Francisco already participated in the party of the last championship, he was a newborn”.
“But I remember it well,” added Matias Santos, who told the Portuguese agency that “being a Benfica fan is not a family passion, it has influence, but it is also by choice, it is a reference.”
In the center of the city, painted red, either by the teams, the flags or the smoke, there was no shortage of club chants or: “I love Benfica”, over and over again, sung melodically.
Minutes before the end of the game, the Public Security Police (PSP) blocked road access to Rossio, which received thousands of people and not even the rain, which began to fall an hour later, dissuaded them and the access streets were invaded by cars. horns.
A Lusa, the PSP responsible for the security of the festivities, said that “staffing was reinforced for tonight” and, until 10:00 p.m., “some cases of use of fireworks were recorded.”
“From time to time we were identifying one person or another and we seized the respective pyrotechnic material. So far there has been nothing more to register”, said Commissioner Paiva.
Source: TSF
