AFTER JEDWARD’S ADMIRABLE performance last Saturday night in the Eurovision, Dublin will have the eyes of Europe on it once again when Portuguese clubs FC Porto and Braga go head-to-head in the UEFA Europa League final at the Aviva Stadium tomorrow night.
Porto began their campaign way back in early August; 10 months later it all comes to a climax on tomorrow against Portuguese Liga rivals Braga.
The History Bit
In recent years, many would regard Porto as Portugal’s biggest club. Ever since the Jose Mourinho days in which he did a European back-to-back double, first winning the UEFA Cup in 2003 and following it up a year later with Champions League success, the club have been in and out of Europe regularly, frequenting the Champions League each year.
In fact, they’ve been in the group stage every year since Mourinho’s victory, up until this year where they had to go through the long and arduous qualifying process to compete in the Europa League.
Porto have never really been at the pinnacle of Portuguese football, often shadowing the great Benfica sides which amassed 32 league trophies, added to many other domestic and European successes.
Porto have had their hands on the league title 25 times however, winning the Portuguese Cup another 15 times and the Portuguese Supercup 17 times. While Benfica were enjoying its golden era in the 60s, Porto went through the club’s longest spell without tasting league victory.
It wasn’t until the 80s and 90s that Porto really established itself as Portugal’s top club, winning the league eleven times in this period and getting its hands on the European Cup for the first time, when they beat Bayern Munich in the final of 1987. Porto were without star striker Fernando Gomes that day, but two goals in the space of four second half minutes overcame Ludwig Kogl’s first half strike to win the club’s ever trophy in European competition.
How was their season?
Pretty good, actually. They only went unbeaten in the Portuguese league, romping home with 20 points to spare, and picked up the Portuguese Cup along the way.
Porto became the second club in the history of Portuguese football to play an unbeaten season, finishing with a ridiculous +57 goal difference and just three draws to their 27 wins.
Having finished third last season, Porto began their Europa League campaign way back on the 8th of August in the final qualifying round of the competition, where they beat Belgian side Genk 7-2 over two legs. Typically for Porto, they swept through the group stage unbeaten, beating Turkish side Besiktas, Rapid Wien of Austria and Bulgarian club CSKA Sofia.
After a small hiccup in the Round of 32 where the away goals rule meant they beat Sevilla, Porto stormed through the rest of the rounds in impressive fashion, beating CSKA Moscow and Spartak Moscow consecutively – all the way to the semi-final where they beat Villarreal 7-4 on aggregate.
The Boss
When hardcore football fans want to drop some knowledge bombs on people similar to Andy Gray, people who haven’t heard of football outside the British borders, Andre Villa-Boas is usually mentioned.
At 33, Villas-Boas is one of the youngest manager in any top division in Europe, but even more strangely he never played football professionally. The man who was recently linked to the Liverpool job, started off at more humble surroundings in the British Virgin Islands where he continued to develop and grow as a shrewd tactician and an intelligent football manager.
After just one year in a “big” job, Academica de Coimbra, Porto felt satisfied enough to give him the vacant managerial job. Today, Andre is being compared to Jose Mourinho and has occasionally been dubbed the “New Special One”. It’s only a matter of time before Villas-Boas moves on to an even bigger club in Europe.
One to Watch
Brazilian forward Hulk is one of the most feared strikers in that part of the world, and for good reason. He’s big, he’s strong, he’s very quick – and he can score.
Named “Hulk” because of his striking resemblance to actor Lou Ferrigno, the 24-year-old has been making waves in European competition for a few years now, ruffling the feathers of Arsenal and Manchester United in the past.
Hulk has notched 34 goals in all competitions this season, including eight in the Europa League. He’ll be the favourite to find the scoresheet tomorrow night in Dublin.
Anyone else?
Joao Moutinho has only just completed his first season at Porto, after joining from rivals Sporting for €11million, but it’s been a pretty good one for the versatile midfield player.
The Portuguese international has been a main stay for Porto all season, playing in Europe 16 times, and his creativity and intelligence on the ball will be a factor Braga will be mindful of when the clash this week.
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