FAI keep their end of the bargain

Europa League final - Porto 1 Braga 0: The Arsenalistas and the Dragons of Portugal were not the teams the FAI had in mind for the leading roles when planning for their big night. It was a hard sell and there was always the fear neutrals for the 2011 Europa League final might settle for a quiet night in instead.

Collars must have felt that little bit tighter in Abbotstown when it emerged neither Porto nor Braga were able to sell on their allocation of 12,000 tickets each, and an hour before kick-off it seemed many of the neutrals had cried off too. But they rolled up in the nick of time, no doubt partly delayed by the authorities who rather bizarrely saw fit to deny them the use of the very train station that serves the stadium.

What they’d have done had hordes of Scousers and Mancunians been descending on Lansdowne Road is anyone’s guess. Preparations for Her Majesty’s visit would have had nothing on that.

Mercifully for an already stretched An Garda Siochana, baffled Portuguese fans haggling over official merchandise prices fit for a queen was about as heated as the exchanges got outside the stadium. The teams come from the same league but, historically at least, they float in different circles.

Porto, who won this competition in 2003 under Jose Mourinho and are two-time European champions, are unbeaten this year. Braga were once knocked out of Europe by West Bromwich Albion.

On paper, at least, it was a mismatch comparable to Ryan Tubridy hosting Her Majesty at the Guinness Storehouse, though on the night they were as poor as each other.

It was a triumph, then, when it emerged there were relatively few empty seats by 7.45pm - the official attendance was 45,391 - but the FAI certainly missed a trick by opting to rebrand to the ‘Dublin Arena’, thereby denying us a quiet giggle at the prospect of ‘Lansdowne Road na, na, na, na, Lansdowne Road na, na, na, na’ being resurrected way back on the streets of Porto.

The Porto fans, in fact, sang one ditty to the tune of Don’t Leave Me This Way by the Communards, though it’s safe to assume the sentiment wasn’t quite the same, considering their side was on course to collect the second piece of silverware of the season after the only goal of the game on 44 minutes.

Falcao’s header, expertly finished from an exquisite cross, was about as good as it got in a first half that made the pre-match mystic of Celtic palaver look positively inspired.

In response, Braga had about as much grunt as their 3,000 supporters. Their travelling support shrank into the night, outgunned by their compatriots in Blue, who seemed to swell in numbers as the night wore on.

Michel Platini, under the satisfied grin of FAI boss John Delaney, dispensed the medals and effectively crowned Porto manager Andre Villas Boas as ‘Mourinho Mark II’, whether he likes it or not.

The ‘Dublin Arena’ was lapped and the appreciation of the fans might have been heard had Uefa not pumped out a fanfare that threatened to keep the Queen awake.

Even a royal rocket from herself, however, couldn’t dampen the FAI spirits. It was barely a spectacle on the pitch but they kept their end of the bargain.