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Portuguese rivals Porto and Braga go head to head this evening in a much anticipated Europa League final.
The neighbours will have to travel 800 miles for the match in Dublin as two sets of Portuguese fans – separated by only 30 miles at home – take over the famous City for the evening.
There is a lot at stake in this contest. Not only a valuable piece of silverware as reward for winning this major European competition, but a large amount of pride and bragging rights to take back to Portugal.
Neither team will want to do the journey having been the losing side, so it should be an extremely competitive 90 minutes, possibly more, of football.
Looking at Porto specifically to begin with, they are undoubtedly favourites to lift the trophy. The secured Primeira Liga title some time ago and finished an impressive 38 points above tonight’s opponents.
In fact, they became only the second ever Portuguese team to finish a league season unbeaten. This significant feat was confirmed with a 2-0 victory at Maritimo last week. Quite simply, they are the dominant force of Portuguese football right now.
They could even win an impressive treble this year with tonight’s Europa League final to be followed by the Portuguese Cup final against Guimaraes on Sunday.
Manager Andre Villas-Boas has certainly got them playing well, perhaps hitting the heights they haven’t achieved since Jose Mourinho guided them to Champions League success in 2004.
Considering he is just 33-years-old, this is quite remarkable and there is no doubt he is a highly-rated manager very much in the Mourinho mould having worked with him at Chelsea and Inter Milan.
This final isn’t all about Porto though. Braga will be in Dublin to upset the odds and come home with the trophy. In fact, the underdog tag might even suit them as they go into the game with nothing to lose.
The league campaigns of both clubs were very contrasting, Braga finished three places below the Champions and scored 51 goals less, but anything can happen in a one-off match.
It will be Domingos Paciencia’s last game in charge of the club too, so there is extra motivation for the Braga players to succeed. To go home with the Europa League trophy would be a great way for him to finish.
The most significant team news for this one is that Porto will be without defender Jorge Fucile and midfielder Cristiano Rodriguez.
Perhaps the defining factor of this contest will be Braga’s ability to cope with the Porto attacking duo of Hulk and Radamel Falcao who have scored 63 goals between them.
If these two are on form, Braga face an uphill challenge from the very first whistle, but if they can keep them quiet early on, the pressure will begin to grow and they might be able to nick the crucial goal themselves.
