Goodison Park holds such a special place in Eusébio’s heart that he readily describes it as his favourite stadium.

Nothing he saw there last night will have dampened his ardour as Benfica wrote an unwanted entry in Merseyside football history.

In inflicting defeat on Everton, the Portuguese club he represented with such grace became the first team to beat Everton and Liverpool on their own grounds in European competition, a notable achievement that was a fitting reward for an outstanding display.

Eusébio’s exploits at Goodison during the 1966 World Cup had prompted Everton to make a pre-pitch presentation to the man still revered in football as the “Black Pearl”. That gesture was a noble one but it seemed to fire up their opponents, for whom Eusébio is not only a club legend, but also a source of inspiration.

Benfica certainly played in his spirit, attacking with an élan that Everton could not cope with and striking incisively when opportunities arose. Javier Saviola and Óscar Cardozo scored the goals that condemned Everton to their seventh successive match without a win, but Ángel Di María, the Argentina winger tipped to become Portuguese football’s next big-money export, stole the show with another virtuoso performance.

While there was much to admire about Benfica’s verve and imagination, David Moyes, the Everton manager, was understandably more interested in the failure of his team to combat the threat of their opponents, having been served notice of their quality in a 5-0 thumping a fortnight earlier.

“We became a little open in the second half and we got done on the counter-attack for the first goal,” Moyes said. “The goals weren’t like the goals we conceded in Benfica. They were poor defensive goals for us.”

Beauty, as the saying goes, is in the eye of the beholder and while there was little to admire in Everton’s defending, there was plenty to marvel about the way Benfica took advantage of such lapses, a quality that Moyes admitted marks them out as opponents of no little quality.“Tonight we lacked a bit of quality going forward,” said Moyes, who was without at least ten first-team players because of injury, including Louis Saha, their leading scorer this season with eight goals.

“But we knew that before the game so it didn’t surprise us. Benfica are a good side. It was a tough game and I think it was tighter than the last one.”

Everton (4-1-4-1): T Howard — A Hibbert, J Yobo, S Distin, L Baines — J Rodwell — D Gosling (sub: Jô, 69min), T Cahill, M Fellaini, D Bilyaletdinov — Yakubu Ayegbeni (sub: K Agard, 81). Substitutes not used: C Nash, S Coleman, S Duffy, J Baxter, J Wallace. Booked: Yakubu, Rodwell, Hibbert.

Benfica (4-3-3): Júlio César — R Amorim, Luisão, Sidnei, D Luiz — Ramires (sub: M Pereira, 45), J García, F Coentrão (sub: P Aimar, 61) — Á Di María, Ó Cardozo, J Saviola (sub: F Menezes, 87). Substitutes not used: Quim, J Shaffer, Weldon, N Gomes. Booked: Júlio César.

Referee: S Ennjimi (France).