UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL: Venue:Aviva Stadium Kick-off: Tonight, 7.45pm On TV:TV3, Channel 5: IT'S NOT easy to make much of a case for the underdogs in this evening's Europa League final at Lansdowne Road. Even their manager, Domingos Paciencia and a couple of his players struggled to sound all that convincing at last night's pre-match press conference.
At first glance, everything looks to be stacked against the minnows with Porto possessing superior resources, the better form and the psychological edge that comes with the fact that they have won the last three encounters between the two sides.
It’s tempting to add history to the list but Paciencia nipped that one in the bud effectively enough. “We’re talking about playing a team that is used to taking part in finals,” he acknowledged before adding, “but then I remember that time in 1987 (the Champions League final in Vienna) when everybody thought Bayern Munich would win. But of course, they didn’t. Porto did. So anything can happen in a final.”
As this things go, it’s a neat enough piece of reverse psychology. It almost goes without saying that over 90 minutes an upset is possible but Braga’s path to this final perhaps provides the strongest evidence that it might actually happen.
Braga had to beat Seville and Celtic just to make the Champions League group stages and had to pick themselves up there after a couple of hammerings in order to salvage a place back in this competition.
Their win over Liverpool, Brazilian winger Alan suggested yesterday, had been the decisive moment in the campaign so far. “Nobody believed we would win that game,” he claimed without fear of contradiction from members of the large contingent of Portuguese media.
But they did and then arguably topped the achievement by shutting out Benfica in the second leg of the semi-finals to win on away goals.
The problem for Paciencia and co. now is that they were doing rather well in all competitions at that stage whereas their form has utterly deserted them in recent weeks. The team has won just once in seven outings (that Benfica game) and have scored just three goals during the run.
By comparison, their opponents this evening have been coasting in recent weeks. The team coached by Andre Villas Boas have failed to win just twice in their last 17 and in truth neither of those games really mattered for the league title was already a mathematical certainty when lowly Pacos de Ferreira came to their Dragon stadium and drew 3-3 while Villarreal were already done for when they won the second leg of their Europa semi-final 3-2 thanks to the 5-1 drubbing they had suffered in the opening game.
The number of goals in those games is no aberration, though. The Portuguese champions play an enticing brand of attacking football aimed at maximising the enormous potential of Hulk’s power up front and Falcao’s tremendous pace alongside him.
Behind them Joao Moutinho is the outstanding creative force while Fernando anchors the three man midfield which is regularly overlapped to good effect by the two full-backs. And there is, both their coach and players were anxious to point out last night, a great deal of freedom for improvisation which Porto’s players generally use it to great effect.
Whether Braga can successfully contain them remains to be seen. Paciencia took considerable satisfaction last night from the fact that Liverpool and, when trailing in their semi-final second and urgently needing to score, Benfica were reduced to launching long balls at their front men and then hoping something broke for them as they followed up.
Braga, though, are a resilient outfit when dug in in front of goal and they might well manage to frustrate their neighbours for long spells this evening just as they have so many other decent side over the course of this European campaign.
Their style is to then hit their opponents with swift counter attacks and the challenge this evening will be to maintain that threat.
All acknowledged that Braga will have to be at their best this evening if they are to complete their remarkable giant killing act.
PROBABLE TEAMS
PORTO: Helton; Sapunaru, Otamendi, Rolando, Alvaro Pereira; Guarin, Fernando, João Moutinho; Hulk, Falcao, Varela.
SPORTING BRAGA:Artur; Miguel Garcia, Paolao, Alberto Rodríguez, Silvio; Mossoró, Vandinho, Hugo Viana; Alan, Meyong, Lima.
Referee: Carlos Velasco Carballa (Spain).
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)