FAN ZONES:- UEFA Europa League have prepared a unique living space for fans of FC Porto. This space will be at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) and for fans of Sporting Club Braga this will be at the Point Village
Category: Europa League Final
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SC Braga
Anyone who got tickets in the last week would have received the ones returned by Braga, it would be nice if everyone in the Braga section wore RED to give a stadium a bit of colour and to give the underdog some support.
SC Braga Finalist profile: Domingos Paciência will leave SC Braga this summer as a club legend having inspired the modest northern side to reach their first UEFA club competition final.
Who would have thought SC Braga would end up here? Following up 2009/10, the best season since the club’s foundation in 1921, seemed a near-impossible task, but under the stewardship of Domingos Paciência – who will leave the club in the summer – the far-fetched quickly became reality. The former FC Porto forward has used his own extensive UEFA Champions League experience to prepare a largely novice squad to face the best.
After running 2006 finalists Arsenal FC close in the UEFA Champions League group stage, the men from Portugal’s Minho region have seen off Liverpool FC, FC Dynamo Kyiv and Liga rivals SL Benfica – winners of 76 domestic championships between them – in the UEFA Europa League en route to a first-ever final in UEFA competition. Now another Portuguese giant, FC Porto, are all that stands between them and only their second major title.
UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
UEFA Intertoto Cup: 2008
Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
Portuguese Cup: 1 (1966)
Previous UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League semi-finals
None
UEFA club ranking
28th (opponents Porto are ninth)
Leading scorer
Liga: Lima 6
Europe: Lima and Alan 2
Strengths and weaknesses
The rash of goals in Braga’s 4-3 UEFA Champions League play-off second-leg win at Sevilla FC announced Paciência’s side to Europe, but masked their true nature as a counterattacking team. The pace of Lima, Paulo César and Alan from the flanks is the key to their swift breaks. This compensates in part for their lack of a reliable centre-forward, which is arguably Braga’s Achilles heel. Matheus’s January departure for FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk accentuated the problem – the Brazilian having scored three times in the UEFA Champions League group stage, including the two goals that beat Arsenal at the Estádio Municipal.
Key moment
The final whistle at Anfield on 17 March was crucial for Braga. Given the 6-0 thrashing endured on their previous trip to England – for their UEFA Champions League group stage debut at Arsenal – their display in keeping Liverpool at bay proved to the Arsenalistas that they could compete with Europe’s big boys away from the security of home. “We knew the second leg was going to be very different,” midfielder Hugo Viana told UEFA.com afterwards. “That’s why it feels so good to be coming away with a deserved result.”
Unsung hero
Perhaps coach Paciência’s greatest achievement in taking Braga into the last four has been to continue the team’s upward trajectory despite the loss of key men in the winter transfer window. Besides Matheus, influential defender Moisés, scorer of Matchday 4’s winner against FK Partizan, also left in January. His replacement has been another of Braga’s large Brazilian contingent, the towering Paulão. The 28-year-old was himself linked with a move to China, yet has stayed in northern Portugal to become an important member of the XI. With Paulão marshalling the back line, Braga have conceded three times in their last six UEFA Europa League games.
Form
League position: 3 (Last five games: DDDWW)
The Arsenalistas have struggled to replicate their unparalleled 2009/10 season, when they finished only five points shy of becoming only the sixth side to lift the Portuguese title. Braga are 35 points behind champions Porto, but are holding on to third place. Their real forte is their home form and away from the comforts of the Estádio Municipal they have won just two out of nine in UEFA competition this term, losing five.
Killer stat
Braga have kept clean sheets in eight of their nine European home fixtures – FC Shakhtar Donetsk broke the sequence with a 3-0 away win in September.
What their opponents say
Jorge Jesus, Benfica coach:
Playing in Braga is as difficult as playing at Porto or Sporting and makes the hosts part of a new four-team cartel at the Liga summit. Braga are very well-organised at the back and try to hit you on the break.
Great Occasion
Lets make this a special occasion, still some tickets left and it will be a long time before we see another European final in Ireland. Go straight to ticket-master and book your ticket for what will be a very special and colourful night; it would be shame to see empty seats! The Coach Diary
UEFA.com by Andy Brassell
André Villas-Boas has spent much of his career assisting José Mourinho but the young coach is now set to emulate his mentor at FC Porto after a brilliant season.
Hailed as the new José Mourinho whom he assisted at FC Porto, Chelsea FC and FC Internazionale Milano, André Villas-Boas took charge in June aged 32, becoming the youngest coach in the Dragons’ history. Not for the first time, Porto chairman Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa seems to have hit the jackpot. The club have been virtually unstoppable under Villas-Boas, storming to the championship and the finals of the UEFA Europa League and Portuguese Cup.
Porto’s dominance in the Liga is perhaps best portrayed by their 19-point lead over last season’s champions SL Benfica and the fact they are still unbeaten with one round to play. Having failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League after finishing third last term, the Dragons have unleashed all their fire power in the UEFA Europa League. They set a record for the highest winning margin in the quarter-finals and Falcao’s 16 goals mean he is already the highest ever scorer in a single UEFA Europa League or UEFA Cup campaign.
UEFA club competition honours (runners-up in brackets)
• European Champion Clubs’ Cup: 1987, 2004
• UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup: (1984)
• UEFA Cup: 2003
• UEFA Super Cup: 1987, (2003), (2004)
Domestic honours (most recent triumph in brackets)
• League title: 25 (2011)
• Portuguese Cup: 15 (2010)
Previous UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League semi-finals
1 (won 1, lost 0)
UEFA club ranking
9 (opponents SC Braga are 28th)
Leading scorer
Liga: Hulk 23
UEFA Europa League: Falcao 16
Strengths and weaknesses
Falcao and Hulk’s partnership has produced 67 of the 136 goals scored by Porto in all competitions this term, with Silvestre Varela and Fredy Guarín also contributing to a goal spree that has brought the Dragons 33 in their last nine matches. Summer signing João Moutinho has proved a bargain at €11m, while Uruguay full-back Alvaro Pereira is a constant threat upfield with dazzling runs down the left and pinpoint crosses. With 46 wins from 55 competitive games this season, it is hard to find any weakness in Porto, although the defence has recently shown signs of inconsistency, leaking 18 goals in 12 matches.
Key moment
Guarín’s 86th-minute strike that earned Porto a 2-1 win at Sevilla FC in their round of 32 first leg. The goal proved vital in the Dragons’ run to the semi-finals, as they lost 1-0 at home a week later in what has been their only defeat in the competition. Sevilla were pushing hard for a winner in front of their fans after Frédéric Kanouté had cancelled out Rolando’s opener, yet it was to be Porto’s night: Cristian Rodríguez broke free before colliding with goalkeeper Andrés Palop, giving Guarín the simple task of stroking in the loose ball.
Unsung hero
Porto supporters raised their eyebrows when little-known Colombia midfielder Guarín landed at the Dragão from AS Saint-Étienne ahead of the 2008/09 campaign. The 24-year-old, who plays either centrally or on the right, struggled to make an impact, featuring mainly as a substitute over the next two seasons – the highlight being his 2009/10 Portuguese Cup final goal which helped Porto beat GD Chaves 2-1. Villas-Boas’s appointment changed everything: Guarín has scored five goals in both the Liga and UEFA Europa League this campaign, his set-piece delivery and passing awareness also causing havoc.
Form
League position: 1 – champions (Last five games: DWWWW)
Denied a fifth straight Portuguese title by Benfica last term, Porto have taken the 2010/11 Liga by storm, with the 2-1 win at their Lisbon rivals on 3 April clinching a 25th domestic crown with five games left. Having established a points record (81 and rising) for a 16-team league, Villas-Boas’s men are one game away from equalling Benfica’s achievement of 1972/73, of lasting the league programme undefeated. The portent was when they beat Benfica 2-0 in August to claim a 17th Portuguese Super Cup, and their only real setback has come in the League Cup: a home loss to CD Nacional stopping them advancing beyond the group stage. With this excellent form replicated in Europe, Porto aim to repeat the glory achieved in 2003 when they lifted the UEFA Cup under Mourinho.
Killer stat
Falcao took his tally to a record-breaking 16 goals in a single UEFA Europa League season with five in Porto’s 7-4 aggregate victory over Villarreal CF in the last four. The Colombia striker registered four in the first leg, equalling Jürgen Klinsmann’s 15-goal haul in FC Bayern München’s UEFA Cup-winning campaign of 1995/96, before surpassing that mark with another a week later in Spain. Falcao, whose 16 goals have come over the course of 13 games, was also on target in the play-offs.
What their opponents say
Juan Carlos Garrido, Villarreal coach:
Porto are one of the best around, with great striking power, and they proved that by scoring from most of the chances we allowed them.
By Nuno Tavares Porto reporter