The Portuguese giant club is in tenth place in UEFA's world ranking, compared to Hammarby, which is in 91st place.
Cathinka Tandberg was recently recruited from Linköping. So far, she has scored seven goals in six matches for Hammarby. She describes the match against Benfica as:
A dream. You've dreamed of playing in the Champions League since you were little, so it's going to be really fun. Hopefully, we'll have the same good feeling after the match too, she says to TT after the team's last training session before the match.
According to the Norwegian, the match is one of the biggest in her career.
Considering how many people are coming and that we're meeting Benfica, it's probably the biggest match of my career, it's up there anyway.
"More nervous than usual"
Tandberg has already achieved great personal successes. For example, she won the top scorer title in Damallsvenskan last year. Yet, she describes the nerves as palpable ahead of the Champions League match.
This means a lot to the team. It's a big match and we have pressure on us to win. You can tell that it's a bit more nervous than usual, it gets like that when it's win or lose in this way. But I think it's important to turn it into something positive instead, and try to build a positive atmosphere within the team.
How to calm the nerves, Tandberg says, is highly personal. She explains that she herself focuses on saving energy for the matches.
It's a bit different what people in the team do to handle nervousness. I myself like to listen to music and try to calm down, otherwise I have so much energy. I try to save it for the pitch instead. You just have to try not to stress yourself out.
"Very psyched"
Tandberg says that the team's energy is high after the recent 5-0 thrashing of Brommapojkarna.
We had an incredibly good match against BP last time, and we also had an incredibly good training session with a lot of energy. Everyone seems very psyched, so it's going to be really fun to meet Benfica. But the most important thing is that we ourselves have a good match, if we do, I think we can win.
The match is the first of two. The return match will be played on Benfica's home ground.
