Sports 16 September 2026

Benfica open their Europa League at San Siro against two of their own

Milan host Benfica at 20:00 Lisbon time on Wednesday in the first round of the league phase. Gonçalo Ramos and Diego Moreira both came through Benfica's academy, Rúben Amorim coaches the Italian side, and Sport TV 5 has it in Portugal.

Benfica begin the Europa League league phase on Wednesday, and they begin it somewhere loud. Kick-off at San Siro is 20:00 Lisbon time, an hour later locally in Milan. In Portugal the match is on Sport TV 5, which holds the rights to Portuguese clubs in European competition.

The team sheet does most of the talking here, and a lot of it is in Portuguese. Gonçalo Ramos and Diego Moreira, both products of Benfica’s academy, will be wearing red and black on the other side. Rúben Amorim, who played for Benfica, is the man in the Milan dugout. There is one more in the stands: Rui Costa, now Benfica’s president, spent five seasons at San Siro as a Milan player. That is a lot of history for a first matchday.

What each side brings

Milan arrive unbeaten in Serie A, though they have dropped points in recent weeks, and with a coach still partway through the job of making the team play his way. Amorim has said as much in public: four games are enough to see what is missing, not to fix it.

Benfica have had a tidy domestic start, including the 3-0 win in Funchal that showed the side ticking over without alarms. The Europa League asks a different question. The league phase runs to eight games on a single table, and it punishes slow starts faster than a group of four ever did.

A busy month all round

This is not the only front open. Domestically, FC Porto have won every league game they have played so far, which guarantees September stays interesting for everyone involved.

One practical note if you are watching from Portugal: eight, not nine. Italian kick-off times catch somebody out every single season, usually about the time the first goal goes in.

By Vasco Almada

Image: Bryan Berlin / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

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