The Day of the Underdogs: Estrela da Amadora v Farense 1990 Portuguese Cup final(s) | OneFootball

On Sunday Estrela host Farense in Amadora in a relegation six-pointer. It is a rerun of one of the most unlikely Portuguese Cup finals ever played. PortuGOAL’s resident football historian Miguel Lourenço Pereira takes us on another trip down memory lane.

A second-tier side against a team that had just landed in the top tier. It was the most unexpected Portuguese Cup final you could imagine, and you got two for the price of one!

A Bola cover the day after the first match that ended Estrela 1-1 Farense after extra time

In 1989/90 Portuguese football went nuts as the Big Three and the usual contenders to win the Cup were sent home one by one. On the day of the final, the Jamor stadium became the stage for a showdown between newcomers Estrela da Amadora and the Algarve’s most successful side, Sporting Clube Farense. A tie so tight that it needed a replay to separate the teams. A feast for those who particularly enjoy placing themselves against all that modern football stands for.

Big Three bite the dust early

When Tirsense travelled to das Antas to put Porto to the sword, the last representative of the Big Three was dumped out of the Cup final. That in itself was a rare event, but more so as it was only the round of sixteen of the competition. Both Benfica and Sporting had already been knocked out of the tournament in the previous rounds, by Vitória FC and Marítimo, and so, suddenly, it was game on for everyone else. Of those still in contention, Vitória SC and Belenenses were seen as the clear favourites, having recently played the final – and in the case of the Restelo boys, won it – but they too were beaten in the semis by two football clubs who had little to no history to show for in Portuguese football up to that moment.

Ten years later, the duel between Beira-Mar and Campomaiorense would probably be cited by Portuguese football fans as more of an underdog final, but truth be told, none of them were playing on the second tier at the time. Farense was. Estrela had only recently been promoted for the first time ever to the top flight. Imagine something like a Casa Pia versus Penafiel today and you’ll somehow get the picture of what happened once the semi-finals were done and the football nation braced itself for an unexpected showpiece.

As ever, it was a festive atmosphere at Jamor for the traditional season-ending showpiece occasion - twice!

Modest teams on the big stage

A terror for journalists who didn’t know how to pitch it to bigger audiences and for the organisation who panicked at the prospect of having empty seats at the Jamor stadium for the last big game of the season, especially because it was being broadcast as well by state TV channel, RTP.

Estrela were seen as favourites but only because they played first-division football at the time. They had ousted Vitória in a tense semi-final and had a team full of seasoned players such as Duílio, Pedro Barny, Basaúla, Bobó, Rebelo and upcoming future internationals like Paulo Bento, and yet the side led by João Alves finished only 13th in the league table, a meagre seven points above the drop zone and almost twenty shy of Vitória, the side they beat in the semis.

Memorable season for upwardly mobile Farense

Farense, on the other hand, had more to celebrate. Not only had their historical local rival from the Algarve Portimonense just been relegated to the second tier, but they also got themselves promoted as the league was increased to 20 teams during that summer. Paco Fortes, the former Barcelona player turned manager, after having spent the final years of his footballing career in southern Portugal, would become an iconic figure for the club and a heartwarming manager if ever there was one in his day.

The team comprised low-profile players and a big Brazilian contingent with the likes of Pitico, Sérgio Duarte, Mané and Ricardo helping the club reach both the Primeira Liga and the Cup final in the same season. They would later be famed for incorporating several players from Morocco and eastern Europe but only the Yugoslavian goalkeeper Zoran Lemajic was in the side during the 1989/90 season, proving key to Farense’s success.

Italia 1990 waits its turn

Nobody knew then but this was going to be a two-part drama. And not exactly with 45 minutes each. The final was scheduled for 27 May. As the world had its eyes set on Italy, with the World Cup to kick off soon, Jamor filled up with supporters from both sides. Against all odds, thousands came to celebrate a historic feat of Portuguese football with the fact Amadora was right next door to Oeiras certainly helping as well. Alves had most of his key players available and sent a side in full force with Melo in goal, followed by Neves, Duilio, Barny and Rebelo in the back, with Caetano, Bobó, Basuala, Baroti, Paulo Bento accompanying Paulo Jorge.

For Farense Forte’s favourite starting eleven also was selected for the match, with the Yugoslavian keeper playing alongside Eugénio, Pereirinha, Pereira, Sousa, Sérgio Duarte, Ademar, Nelo, Formosinho, Pitico and Fernando Cruz up front. Neither side were glamorous or had high-profile players but what they lacked in flair they made up for in commitment by the bucketload. Inevitably, the match became a contest of which side could hold their nerve better and without many goal-scoring chances, the game unsurprisingly moved to extra-time.

Extra-time drama

Right after the restart, and under the hot spring sunshine, Estrela scored the opener through substitute Nélson Borges. A low shot from outside of the box whistled past Lemajic’s stretched arms and nestled in the net, bringing Estrela’s supporters to tears. There was still almost half an hour of football to play but many believed the task was done. Only, it wasn’t.

Farense became known during the 1990s for their fighting spirit and that was already well perceived during the Cup run of that season. In the dying minutes of the match, a cross into the box was met with confusion by players from all sides until Cruz, surprisingly, found a way to shoot exactly to the same spot that Borges had sent his shot. Melo was unable to block the ball and the game was tied.

There were only three minutes left on the clock. Without penalty kicks as an option, both sides knew that an extra match was due to be played in the coming days and they went at each other’s throats for the dying seconds but to no avail.

Quickly organised replay

The Portuguese Federation now had an issue in its hands. The game needed to be scheduled within the same week, so they moved it to the following Sunday, 3 June, but many supporters from both sides couldn’t afford another trip or even the ticket for the rematch so the atmosphere around the replay was startlingly different to the first match. The same players walked onto the pitch, but their mindset was not the same.

Estrela appeared to be more in control than they had ever been during the previous matchday, and Paulo Bento opened the scoring within the half-hour. The future Portugal international and national team manager, despite being just 20 years old at the time, was a key player in that Estrela midfield machine and was later yellow-carded for a foul typical of his rugged style of play. It was in the 62nd minute and as the match restarted, Estrela immediately won the ball back and Ricardo Lopes netted the second goal of the afternoon.

Melting pot Amadora has a party

This time there would be no comeback for Fortes’ men. Even when Bobó was sent off, the Tricolour side from Amadora never lost control of the action and as the final whistle was heard at the Jamor, supporters and players celebrated in ecstasy.

Less than a decade before, Estrela were nothing but a suburban Lisbon club with no history or capacity to compete against the bigger sides. The massive immigration from Africa, both from white Portuguese who lived in what were the nation’s colonies back in the day – the so-called retornados – but also from black African communities coming from Mozambique, Angola, Cape Verde and Guinea had transformed the town completely, boosting it with new life and a reinvigorated attitude.

That eventually transpired into the local football club and the Reboleira ground became alive with this injection of ambition and fearless attitude that allowed Estrela to climb the ranks all the way up to the First Division. Winning the Cup was unexpected but also the reward for this newfound community and the club would be taking part in the following season’s Cup Winners Cup, their sole European adventure.

Fall and rise: similar trajectories after 1990 Cup final

The club became a household name, and despite being declared bankrupt in the new millennium they recently resurfaced under a new banner and have established themselves once again at the top table, much like Farense, who also suffered almost two decades of ignominy but since have once again tasted the flavour of the country’s football elite.

The two matches characterised the spirit and ethos of both clubs and how Portuguese football was still, back in the day, able to create surprises out of nowhere, something that seems that have been lost recently. For many, 3 June 1990 will forever be the day when the underdogs definitively prevailed.