EURO ENCOUNTERS

This is our seventh European tie against Portuguese opponents, JON RAYNER looks back at our previous competitive matchups with teams from Portugal.

- JON RAYNER

Benfica provided our first Portuguese encounter back in 1962. We were drawn against the holders in the semi-final of the European Cup, going out 3-4 on aggregate. They had seen off the challenge of FK Austria and Nuremberg after being given a bye in the preliminary round while we had defeated Gornik Zabrze, Feyenoord and Dukla Prague to reach the last four.

The first leg in Lisbon saw the home side take a fifth-minute lead through Jose Aguas. Augusto added a second on 19 minutes but we clawed our way back into the tie nine minutes after the break when Bobby Smith headed home from a Danny Blanchflower centre. Augusto made it 3-1 on the night in the 64th minute before a 70,000 crowd.

The return here 15 days later produced our record receipts at the time of £25,500, from a gate numbering 64,448. The second half was broadcast live on television across the UK and much of mainland Europe.

We went behind to an Aguas goal on the quarter-hour mark but a 35th-minute lob from Smith, who was set up by John White, brought us level on the night. Three minutes after the interval we went 2-1 up when Mario Coluna charged John White in the back and Blanchflower netted from the penalty spot. A third goal, to take the tie to a replay (this before the advent of the away goals rule), eluded us and our first venture into European competition ended at the penultimate hurdle. Benfica went on to retain the trophy with a 5-3 victory over Real Madrid in the Amsterdam final.

During our attempt to retain the UEFA Cup in 1972/73, we came up against Vitoria Setubal in the fourth round of the competition, safe in the knowledge that European football was already guaranteed for the following campaign as we had just beaten Norwich City to win the League Cup.