Preview: FC Porto Vs. Sporting Braga, 2011 Europa League Final

Andre Villas Boas and Porto FC are looking to cap off a magnificent season with a Europa League final win in Dublin against familiar opposition. Hoping to spoil the party are fellow Portuguese outfit Sporting Braga, whose coach Domingos Paciencia has already announced that the final will be his last game in charge. While Paciencia can look forward to bigger and better things in the years to come, his focus must be on defeating a Porto side that has looked something like unstoppable for most of the campaign.

Villarreal did manage to beat the Portuguese champions in the second leg of their semi-final clash, but a 3-2 win at El Madrigal came only after the La Liga team were slaughtered 5-1 in Porto. Other than that, Villas Boas’ side have not lost a game all season, strolling to the Portuguese crown with more than a month to spare and generally being unthinkably good at what they’ve been doing.

The forward line gets most of the plaudits, and for good reason. Hulk and Falcao are each world class at their positions, and Falcao has already secured the record for most European goals scored in a single season. On the left, Varela is an excellent player in his own right as well, although he tends to get overshadowed by his more flamboyant teammates.

How does Braga stop them? Hulk has already showed that when he’s on, they can’t play one vs. one against him and expect to come out unscathed. If they want to contain Porto’s threat, they’ll have to compress the space between the midfield and defensive lines and have their midfielders provide close support to the fullbacks. Of course, they can’t really build up attacks like that - we may well find that Braga employ a broken team and looks to hit on the counterattack. Player for player, they just can’t match up to Porto otherwise.