Nervous Benfica supporters

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Turkish visit, day 1.

When I visited Turkey a couple of years ago, one of the things that made it a very special trip was the tour guide.

Besides his knowledge, his efficiency running the tour and helping us see the Turkey beyond the usual tourist attractions, he was just a great guy to be with. One of those rare people who, having to be nice when dealing with others in their work, doesn't need to fake it. Me and R really loved having him as a guide and told him to make sure he'd warn us if he ever came to Portugal.

Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago.

Through FB, I receive a message from him. He's coming to Lisbon on vacations with a friend, he'd like to meet us and he would love to attend the football match SL Benfica vs FC Porto (basically, Portugal's Real Madrid vs Barcelona) that was coming up. Turkish are crazy about football, you see...

Getting the tickets wasn't very easy, I had to pull some favours, but eventually I got two and we were able to go to the match.

Now, I don't care much for the portuguese league, even if I usually play football twice a week, but this was a great match to watch.

These teams are very strong rivals, so the stadium was packed - 56,222 people! The game-play was intense, with turnarounds and polemic situations but, in the end, Benfica, the home team, lost 2-3.

I was discreetly happy (when I cared about teams, I was a Porto supporter) but Çaglar loved it. He knew most players, took lots of photos and I told him lots of juicy details about our football.

And, of course, I took him out for drinks afterwards.

All in all, a great night.

PS: a heartfelt thanks to L, for pointing a grammar error on the text :)