REAL MADRID visit Braga in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
The 14-time winners will play at the Municipal Stadium for the first time as Braga become the 152nd club to play Los Blancos in Europe.
Jude Bellingham and Vinicius Jr. will be amongst the stars walking out at the 30,000-capacity stadium carved into the side of a mountain.
Braga’s unique home has just two stands and a big screen perched on the face of the mountain.
Nicknamed The Quarry, it was opened in 2003 and cost a total of £175million to build.
The ground’s unique design even saw it win the Pritzker Prize in 2011, seen as the Nobel Prize of architecture.
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Architect Eduardo Souto de Moura said: “The Braga stadium might be the most difficult project I ever did.
“And perhaps for that reason, the one I enjoyed the most.
“They had found a plot of land for a stadium, in a valley with a waterway.
“They thought the stands could follow the curves of the valley. I visited and fell in love with it.”
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Braga have called the stadium home since 2003, renting it off the city council for just £435 a month.
However, talks have now opened for the club to buy the venue with renovation work needed to modernise the ground.
The club hope it can be used for the 2030 World Cup, with Portugal confirmed as co-hosts, but the capacity will need to be doubled to at least 60,000 for the stadium to be used during the knockout stage.
After opening, the Municipal Stadium was used as a venue for Euro 2004, hosting two matches during the group stage.
The Portuguese national team have also played there five times, most recently in 2018.
On Tuesday night, though, it will welcome Real Madrid on matchday three of this season’s Champions League group stage.
The Spanish giants currently top group C after winning each of their first two games.
Meanwhile, Braga are third following their victory over Union Berlin earlier this month.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
