When Benfica and Braga met with a European final the prize | OneFootball

A couple of days before Benfica and Braga lock horns at the Estádio da Luz in the final league game of the primeira volta of 2024/25, Miguel Lourenço Pereira takes us back to the 2010/11 season when the two clubs battled it out for a place in the Europa League final.

It was the sweetest defeat. Losing is always a hard pill to swallow but there are moments when its relevance shrinks owing to the wider implications. And it couldn’t get better than this. Sporting Braga were on their way to their first-ever European final, only the fourth Portuguese club to achieve such a feat. They had lost at Benfica, yes, but a few days later, thanks to the away goal rule, they booked a ticket to posterity.

It was a tough blow for the Eagles supporters who, just a year prior, were starting to believe that the golden years were back on track, and it also became a pivotal moment in the history of the Portuguese game as it set up the first and only, for now, all Portuguese European final.

Porto await the winners

The nerves were ticking as time went by. Nothing seemed to go according to plan for the home supporters. They knew it wasn’t supposed to be a bed of roses, but they were Benfica, a two-time European Cup winner. Braga, on the other hand, were minnows if you considered their continental relevance. But that goal, against the run of play, could compromise everything they hoped for.

Because, of course, there were also the other guys. Porto were cruising in their tie against Villareal and were expected to be in the final. To beat their bitter rivals on a grand stage was what both sets of supporters most hoped for, so many Dragões supporters were rooting for Benfica for once. They wanted badly to beat them once again on neutral ground just as they had done four times already over the previous months.

In the dugout, looking desperate, Jorge Jesus couldn’t believe his eyes. He had left Braga for the Lisbon giants a couple of seasons prior, and his impact was immediate, leading Benfica to a much-awaited league title, putting an end to four years of ruthless dominance by Porto. What Jesus probably didn’t expect was that Braga would be fighting against his side for that title until the last day of the season. And it was that same Braga team who now threatened the possibility of Benfica failing to get a ticket for their first European final in more than two decades. Something definitely wasn’t right.

A Bola focuses on the battle between Jorge Jesus and Domingos Paciência, and notes that each starting line-up contained only three Portuguese players

Braga’s lukewarm interest in its football team

Sporting Braga had never been an important club in the dynamics of Portuguese football. For decades they fought against their local rivals Vitória SC to be considered the best side north of Porto, but it was more of a symbolic title than anything else. They claimed a Cup win in the mid-1960s and that was it. A stable first-division side that never punched above their weight – contrary to Vitória – and didn’t manage to get much attention from the locals of the city, also in stark contrast to their rivals.

Braga was considered one of the five big cities in the land, a region that experienced an economic boom after the 25 April revolution with the development of local textile companies. Known as the city of Archbishops through the historical role of the city in the political structure of the Catholic faith in the area for centuries, many even claim that if it wasn’t for the fight for independence of the local authorities against the all-powerful force of the Archbishop of Santiago, perhaps Portugal would still be a part of Spain. Although Guimarães was the nation’s first capital city, the place where its first king, D. Afonso Henriques, rode out to fight both the Spanish and Moors armies in his fight for independence, it was Braga’s political and economic influence, through the church, that made the claim possible.

The city didn’t change much for almost nine centuries, though, inserted into a rural background, a very close-doors world that didn’t express much joy about anything. Football was an exception but the local club was never hugely popular with many in town opting to support Benfica instead, making the city one of the largest in the country for Eagles supporters. An irony that would not be lost to many in the years to come.

Salvador changes Sporting Braga’s status

In the early 2000s the arrival of António Salvador, a constructor entrepreneur, started to change things. Salvador wanted the club to grow and establish itself as a direct rival to the so-called Big Three. To get to the heights Boavista had reached before plunging into hell. The club had moved out from the old 1 de Maio ground to the new Pedreira stadium, an architectural wonder that lacked soul and was often half-empty.

Salvador searched for players in Brazil and in the Portuguese league but, most of all, he believed that it would be the choice of the right manager that could set the template for future joys. He first betted on Jesualdo Ferreira, before he became a three-time league winner with Porto and then signed Jorge Jesus, who fancied himself as the biggest manager in the land. He didn’t bring honours to the club but his side played well and gained in tactical acumen so when he moved back to Lisbon to coach Benfica, the team already had a competitive edge to it.

Salvador then took a gamble. He brought Domingos Paciência, a former FC Porto legend as a striker during the 1990s that lacked experience as manager. The gamble paid off handsomely. In his first season, Paciência improved Jesus’ side and fought against Benfica neck to neck for the title up until the very last day. That paved the way for Champions League football, although it wasn’t an easy task to reach the group stage. Braga had to beat Celtic and Sevilla in the preliminary rounds before they could book a ticket to the final stages. They were routed by Arsenal – the similarity in their kit design had them known as Arsenal de Braga for many years – and weren’t able to beat a strong Shakhtar Donetsk side but still ended third, managing a ticket to the Europa League knock-out rounds alongside Benfica, who had a disappointing group stage.

Benfica seeking to save their season

It hadn’t been a good season for the Eagles. The press had raised the expectations to an all-time high, there was quality in their ranks and Jesus himself was someone not shy to set the bar high, but ever since they were routed by FC Porto – coached by newcomer André Vilas-Boas – in the Portuguese Super Cup, things were just going worse. Porto humiliated Benfica 5-0 at home in the league a few months on, and after a poor Champions League group stage, they already lagged in the league table behind the Dragões.

A back-to-back title seemed unlikely so Jesus put all his money on the Cup runs. They won the League Cup against Paços de Ferreira but lost to FC Porto in the semis of the Portuguese Cup, after beating them at home, losing the away advantage with a shock home defeat in the return leg. The Europa League was all that was left. Believing they were on their way to the final, they had beaten Stuttgart, PSG and PSV and many had tipped them as favourites to win the trophy. The last European final they played was back in 1990, a time when Sven-Goren Eriksson’s side were beaten by Arrigo Sacchi’s AC Milan with a sole Frank Rijkaard goal.

Red was the dominant colour in the packed Estádio da Luz

They were certainly considered favourites against Braga for the semis since many never expected the Archbishops to even be there in the first place. A triumph against Lech Poznan was on the cards but beating Liverpool was not. Neither going one better against Dynamo Kyiv with two draws, proving that Domingos’s side were hardly spectacular but knew how to be effective.

Benfica had already suffered a painful home humiliation. Porto had clinched their league title by winning there three weeks prior. It was an excruciating memory that was even harder for some as the club showed a lack of sportsmanship unusual for its standards by turning off the stadium lights and turning on the sprinklers while the away side was still celebrating on the green turf. The supporters wanted to forget those painful images as quickly as possible and nothing would do better than clinching a place in a continental final. The days before the first leg, the press was all over the possibility of a Clássico showdown in the final in Dublin and few gave Braga a chance.

Jesus pulled no punches and went all out for it, placing Carlos Martins alongside César Peixoto and Javi Garcia in a creative midfield supporting the likes of Pablo Aimar, Javier Saviola and Oscar Cardozo in attack with Maxi Pereira and Fábio Coentrão providing width in attack. On the other hand, as expected, Domingos played his cards carefully. Vandinho and Hugo Viana had to close down the middle with Alan and Leandro playing on the wings behind Lima and Meyong, two very mobile strikers up front.

Quickfire goals

For the first 45 minutes, few things happened which was just what Domingos was hoping for. Cardozo had a ball hit the woodwork and a goal rightly disallowed but, besides that, Benfica attacked but were incapable of penetrating the defensive wall in front of Artur’s goal. Braga had adopted this approach throughout the competition and were keen on repeating the same recipe. If only they could score a goal against the run of play that would be glorious. But it was the home side who broke the deadlock. A great run on the right by Maxi ended with the Uruguayan crossing to Cardozo, who hit the woodwork once again. Only, this time, the ball ricocheted to Jardel and the defender just had to tuck it into the empty net to open the scoring.

While the locals were still celebrating, Braga equalised. It only took them two minutes to grab a foul near the touchline for Vandinho to deflect a Hugo Viana free-kick that left Spanish goalkeeper Roberto unable to react. It was the away goal Domingos was looking for, the same goal that had been decisive in the previous rounds. Only, this time, it was Braga supporters who couldn’t celebrate properly. Just five minutes after the equaliser, Cardozo netted a brilliant free-kick to re-establish the home side’s lead. It was a slender lead though. As the match was reaching its last breaths, Domingos was aware that this was a defeat he could live with.

Benfica dominated the shot count but Braga did not just defend

In fact, it was almost the perfect result to bring back home, as Benfica were still feeling they had the upper hand, but a single goal could make all the difference. And so it proved. In the 19th minute of the return leg, Custódio scored what would be the only goal of the night. The Vandinho header proved decisive according to the now ditched away goal rule and Braga clinched their ticket to the Dublin final to the despair of Benfica supporters, many of whom had packed the Braga stadium as supporters of the away team despite living in the region. An irony enjoyed by those who had stayed true to their local club for many decades without anything to show for it other than emotional attachment.

Braga fall short in the final but embark on golden decade

There would be no Benfica-Porto Clássico in Dublin – it would have been the sixth time the two sides faced each other in the season – an opportunity lost forever. Still, Portuguese football could rejoice as they entered the hall of fame of being the fifth nation pitching two of their clubs in a continental final, after England, Spain, Italy and Germany had achieved it in the past.

Braga would not conquer the Europa League, although they were a tough nut to crack, but in claiming a place in the final they did what no other national side, bar the Big Three, had achieved. They are still to win the league – for many the main argument if you want to claim to be the fourth most relevant club in the land – but by playing the Europa League final they achieved something memorable and yet to be replicated, putting them side by side with Os Belenenses and Boavista, the only sides who managed to beat Benfica, Porto and Sporting to the league title in the past. It would be the beginning of Braga’s golden decade, paving the way for wins in the Portuguese Cup, the Portuguese League Cup and other notable European campaigns, both in the Champions League as well as the Europa League.

An away goal for eternity

Benfica would eventually reach the Europa League final, twice in the following seasons, losing against Chelsea in 2013 and Sevilla in 2014 (some attributing the losses to the infamous Guttmann Curse), the latter in a year when they finally won back the league with two key players from that Braga side in their starting eleven, goalkeeper Artur and striker Lima.

Braga never went as far as the last eight, sure, but by losing that night in Lisbon and winning the return leg at home, they became part of European royalty nonetheless. Vandinho didn’t know it at the time but there was never an away goal as important in the history of the football club as the one he scored on that hot April night in Lisbon. A goal for eternity.