EUROPA LEAGUE FINAL:THE ARSENALISTAS and the Dragons of Portugal were not the teams the FAI had in mind for the leading roles when they were planning their big night. It was a hard sell and there was always the fear neutrals might settle for a quiet night in for the 2011 Europa League final.
Collars must have felt that little bit tighter in Abbotstown when it emerged neither Porto nor Braga were able to sell on their entire allocation of 12,000 tickets each, and an hour before kick-off it seemed many of the neutrals had cried off too.
But they turned 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 would have done were hordes of Scousers and Mancunians 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 Síochána, baffled Portuguese fans haggling over official merchandise prices fit for a queen, was about as heated as the exchanges became outside the stadium. These two teams come from the same league but, historically at least, they float in different circles.
Porto, who won the Uefa Cup in 2003 and are two-time European champions, were 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 the stadium the ‘Dublin Arena’, thereby denying us a quiet giggle a 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 Wayby 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 from 44 minutes onwards.
Falcao’s header, while expertly finishing an exquisite cross, was about as good as it got in a first half that made the pre-match mystic Celtic palaver look positively inspired.
In response, Braga had about as much grunt as their 3,000 or so supporters, who shrank into the night, outgunned by their compatriots in Blue, who seemed to swell in numbers as the night wore on to the final whistle.
Michel Platini, under the satisfied grin of 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 must have been keeping the Queen awake across the city.
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 part of the bargain.
