Portuguese pair FC Porto and Sporting Braga meet in Dublin in the final of the Europa League on Wednesday night with the Dragons going in as hot favourites.
FC Porto v Sporting Braga @ Dublin Arena
Road to Final
FC Porto
-Semi Final, defeated Villarreal 7-4 on aggregate
-Quarter Final, defeated Spartak Moscow 10-3 on aggregate
-Round of 16, defeated CSKA Moscow 3-1 on aggregate
-Round of 32, defeated FC Sevilla on away goals, 2-2 on aggregate
-Group stage, top of Group H, ahead of Besiktas, Rapid Vienna & CSKA Sofia
Sporting Braga
-Semi Final, defeated Benfica on away goals, 2-2 on aggregate
-Quarter Final, defeated Dynamo Kyiv on away goals, 1-1 on aggregate
-Round of 16, defeated Liverpool 1-0 on aggregate
-Round of 32, defeated Lech Poznan 2-1 on aggregate
-Eliminated from Champions League, third in Group H, behind Shakhtar Donetsk & Arsenal, ahead of Partizan Belgrade
Form
FC Porto
-Porto won the Portuguese Liga Sagres by a staggering 21 points and went through the season unbeaten, with 27 wins from 30 games
-Porto scored 73 goals and conceded only 16 in Liga Sagres
-Porto won their final game of the season last weekend 2-0 at Maritimo
-Hulk was Porto’s topscorer in Liga Sagres with 23 goals
-Radomel Falcao has set a new record for the most goals in the UEFA Cup/Europa League this season with 16 strikes
-Porto are in the final of the Taca de Portugal to be played against Vitoria Guimaraes on Sunday
Sporting Braga
-Braga finished the Liga Sagres season in fourth and in poor form
-Braga failed to win one of their final four league matches, with three draws and a loss during the period
-Braga lost 1-0 at home to Sporting Lisbon on the weekend meaning they missed out on a top three finish
-Braga have scored just three goals in their past seven matches in all competitions
-Porto have won the past three meetings between these two clubs
Coaches Andre Villas-Boas said: “People focus a lot of the work on the manager, but it’s also about the structure of the club and the quality of the players. We’re able to mix that well together this year. We made this final with all this competence around us. I don’t see it as a one-man show.”
He added: “I don’t approach football with only a tactical approach — you can achieve success through various means. What I like is to make my players give their most but I give them lots of room to manoeuvre. I try to promote their talent and feel free to make the right decisions. I’m no dictator.”
Domingos Pacienca, a former Porto player, said: “I haven’t been sleeping very well when I think about us reaching the final. It’s a dream to come to Dublin, and I don’t want to wake up, I want to keep dreaming.”
On Villas-Boas, Pacienca added: “He’s a young coach, not very experienced, but he has lots of merits. The things he’s doing at Porto are outstanding. When you work with great players and have far more power rather than working for teams in the second or third division, then things are much easier. Football is really influenced by the moment. The moment is very relevant … and I’m very happy to take advantage of this.”
Sports Pundit prediction; FC Porto 3-0 Sporting Braga
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