PHOTO: Braga play in a stadium that is carved into a mountain

Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Braga played in a stadium that is carved into a mountain.

Real Madrid players have traveled all the way to the north of Portugal for a Champions League clash with Braga, and the arena they’ll be playing at is far from ordinary.

What makes The Estadio Municipal de Braga so unique is that it’s partially carved into the very rock that surrounds it.

The most significant of Braga’s many hilltops is the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and place of pilgrimage for Christians who climb the white and gold zig-zag staircase to its doors.

Six kilometres west, planted upon Monte do Castro as if a piece of Lego, sits another monument that is both incongruous yet completely natural in a way that suggests the divine played a part here too.

But SC Braga’s Municipal Stadium was designed, engineered and built by man — and on Tuesday, it will host one of the greatest club sides in the world, Real Madrid.

Braga will become the 152nd different club Real have played in 68 years of continental football, but never will the 14-time European champions have played at a stadium with a backdrop quite like this.

At the end of the spiralling roads that lead to the highest point in the Dume area, right next to an old quarry lies a stadium that seems to defy logic.

A stand with its foundations built into a rock; a giant scoreboard perched on a granite embankment behind one goal; and nothing but empty space behind the other, offering a panoramic of the city. 

“Portugal is one of the hosts of World Cup 2030, and to be eligible for the knockout games you need a stadium with 60,000 seats” he says. “Braga only have 30,000. When it was built, Braga were usually finishing in the bottom half of the table, often at risk of relegation; now they’re near the top, so people now demand more of the club.

“If it was the other way around and the stadium was too big, people would be complaining as well. It’s a risk of the profession.”

Until 2013, Braga had only won a single major trophy — the 1966 Portuguese League Cup. Since then, have they solidified their profile as the fourth-best team in Portugal, winning four domestic cups and establishing themselves in Europe, reaching the 2011 Europa League final and qualifying for the Champions League group stage for the third time this season.

In line with their growing ambitions, Braga are close to completing their ‘Sports City’ project, first set out in 2017, with a new women’s arena complementing the sprawling academy building and pitches above the Municipal Stadium.