SOCCER EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL Porto 1 Braga 0:THE REASON everyone loves all that David and Goliath stuff is hardly rocket science; the fact is that in real life the big guys usually win, rather comfortably. And so it proved in the Aviva Stadium last night as a brave Braga side's Europa League dream was finally killed off by a solitary first half Falcao goal for the plainly superior Portuguese champions.
Thirty-eight points separated these sides back home in the title race, and the respective recent form scarcely suggested that Domingos Paciencia’s men could even run their rivals this close. As it turned out, though, they made a decent though not great final of it. They might have done more than that had Custodio at the start of the first half or Morroso at the beginning of the second done better with great chances to score.
The former’s shot was hopelessly rushed, though, while the latter might actually have taken a little too long to let fly, and so one flew well wide while the other was saved by Helton with a trailing foot, after the goalkeeper had committed himself to going the wrong way.
They were the sort of chances a team like Braga were never going to be able to pass up, and with their midfield consistently surrendering or squandering possession during the 90 minutes, Porto’s task was made that little bit easier.
Low expectations, of course, had, along with a lack of cash, been a major factor in keeping most Braga fans at home and the bulk of the city’s population must have been fairly relieved by half-time that they had kept their credit cards in their pockets.
The 3,000 or so who did make the journey did their best to inspire their team from their vantage point high in what would have been the old east stand, but they were comfortably drowned out most of the time by their far more numerous rivals who sang and then, when the time came, celebrated, with gusto over the course of the night.
It was never quite so one-sided down on the field of play but Porto were always that little bit better, especially in midfield where Fernando coasted about coolly winning the ball and then feeding it forward to allow players like Joao Moutinho and Fredy Guarin to push on and open things up for the three front-runners.
Two of them had been widely billed beforehand as the game’s big star attractions with Hulk and Falcao reportedly coveted by major clubs in England, Italy and Spain.
Indeed, there has been some talk this might have been the pair’s second last game in the colours of the Portuguese club (their domestic cup final is this weekend), but club president Pinto da Costa, says neither is for sale, which will doubtless be the end of the matter.
Hulk, as it happens, didn’t set the night alight anyway. He had threatened to briefly early on when he produced a magical piece of skill to work his way in from the right, skipping past the challenges of Silvio, Paulao and Alberto Rodriguez before hitting a powerful shot that flew across the face of goal.
After that, sadly, he rarely looked all that incredible at all and his tendency to have a crack at goal from free kicks ridiculously far out didn’t really do his side any favours.
Falcao’s evening probably wouldn’t have been one to remember either if it hadn’t been for his goal – but that’s the way of things with strikers.
So, after a relatively quiet night, the 25-year-old will be celebrated by the majority of northern Portuguese today as the scorer of the goal that won the league championship, this trophy and has kept them on course for the treble. Having already scored 16 league goals and 17 in Europe this season, he deserves all the credit the fans can heap upon him
And simple as it was, his winner here had a touch of beauty about it, with Guarin picking up possession in midfield, pulling up quickly to lose Silvio and then curling a delightful cross towards the centre of the box where the Colombian, having neatly shaken off Paulao, did very well to get his head behind the ball and direct it beyond Artur’s reach and into the top left hand corner.
It came just before half-time, so Porto went in for the break on a high but if Mossoro had taken his chance to equalise immediately after the restart, then, perhaps, the minnows might still have had the makings of an upset in them.
Even as it was, they managed to have more attempts on goal and more attempts on target by the end, despite having had significantly less possession than their opponents.
Once Helton did enough to preserve his side’s lead, though, Porto began to have a rather comfortable look about them and their coach Andre Villas-Boas did little over the course of the second half to interfere with the pattern or tempo of the game.
It would have been interesting to see how he would have reacted had his right back, Cristian Sapunaru, been sent off a little over halfway through the second period for what looked, certainly to the livid Braga players anyway, a second bookable offence.
Or how such a highly regarded coach might have lifted his players again in the event that Braga had nicked an equaliser 14 minutes from time, when Albert Meyong combined well with Alan on the edge of the box only to fluff his shot from 20 yards.
In the end, though, he and his players were never really rattled in the way that would have injected a little added excitement into the closing stages for the many neutrals in the crowd. The suspicion is after this latest success that the 33-year-old coach will be even more sought-after this summer than his highly rated stars.
PORTO: Helton; Sapunaru, , Rolando, Otamendi, Alvaro Pereira; Guarin (Belluschi, 73 mins), Fernando, João Moutinho; Hulk, Falcao, Varela (James Rodriguez, 79 mins). Subs Not Used: Beto, Maicon, Walter, Souza, Ruben Micael. Booked: Sapunaru, Helton, Rolando.
SPORTING BRAGA: Artur; Miguel Garcia, Paolao, Alberto Rodríguez (Kaká, half-time), Silvio; Custódio, Hugo Viana (Mossoró, half-time), Vandinho; Alan, Lima (Meyong, 66 mins), Paulo César. Subs Not Used: Cristiano, Helder Barbosa, Echiejile, Leandro Salino. Booked: Hugo Viana, Silvio, Miguel Garcia, Mossoro, Kaka.
Referee : Carlos Velasco Carballa(Spain).
