In July 2008 Celtic, Middlesbrough, Cardiff City and Vitoria Guimaraes played in the inaugural Algarve Challenge Cup at the Estadio Algarve
From the official site
“With clubs from England, Scotland and Wales pitting themselves against the Portuguese Champions League qualifiers it is sure to provide a real competitive edge to the pre-season tournament as well as providing a fantastic party atmosphere on the Algarve this summer.
The tournament will take place at the Estadio Algarve. The stadium is situated in the spacious Cities Park on the border between the towns of Faro and Loulé (S. João da Venda), which include a botanical garden, a lake, a golf course, a 400-metre athletics track, training grounds and the future Algarve Central Hospital “
This year the Algarve Challenge Cup line up throws some interesting teams together with Celtic v Middlesbrough and Guimaraes v. Cardiff City on the 22nd July. The final evening (24th July) will see Middlesbrough v. Guimaraes and then a clash of the Celts with Celtic v. Cardiff City to wrap up the tournament. With over 1.5 million tourists & 16,000 Brits choosing to buy property on the Algarve annually the Algarve Challenge Cup tournament organisers are predicting a major rush for tickets which go on sale on the 23rd May.
Tournament format
The tournament was be a modified league system where teams got 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw. In addition to this a point wasbe awarded for every goal scored which was to promote attractive attacking football. So a 3-3 draw would get a team the same number of points as a 1-0 victory.
22nd July 2008:
19.15 KO: Guimaraes 1-2 Cardiff City
21.30 KO: Middlesbrough 1-1 Celtic
24th July 2008:
19.15 KO: Guimaraes 1-0. Middlesbrough
21.30 KO: Cardiff City 1-0 Celtic