Estádio da Luz

The name survived the demolition. Benfica's old ground on this site, open since December 1954, came down to make way for an entirely new building, yet the club kept the name — Estádio da Luz still refers to a stadium with no physical link to the one it replaced.

It opened on 25 October 2003 with a friendly against Uruguay's Nacional, won 2-1, and drew a crowd of 65,400 that stood as the ground's attendance record for more than two decades. A Real Madrid visit in February 2026 reportedly topped it, with 66,387 through the gates, though StadiumDB's own count from a 2017 match against Vitória Guimarães sits well below both figures.

HOK Sport Venue Event, later renamed Populous, designed the building at a cost put at around 160 million euros, part-funded by a government subsidy tied to Portugal's hosting of Euro 2004. The stadium staged that tournament's final, Portugal's defeat to Greece, then returned to the European stage twice more: Real Madrid's extra-time win over Atlético in the 2014 Champions League final, and Bayern Munich's single-goal victory over Paris Saint-Germain in 2020, played to empty stands under pandemic restrictions.

Capacity rose to 68,100 in July 2025. The pitch itself is a point of disagreement between sources — some describe a hybrid surface reinforced with synthetic fibres, others simply natural grass. Off the football calendar, the stadium has hosted Guns N' Roses, Imagine Dragons and Rammstein, along with a Taylor Swift concert in 2024 whose crowd registered on seismographs. A floodlight failure during a 2023 match against Porto left the club facing a fine of up to 2,500 euros.