FC Porto and Sp. Braga meet this Friday, February 27th, at 12pm, in Nyon, their respective opponents in the round of 16 of the Europa League, which will take place on March 12th and 19th. The two Portuguese clubs have the same possibilities: Stuttgart and Ferencváros.
The Germans, currently fourth in the Bundesliga, are one of the strongest teams in the competition, having beaten play-off Scottish side Celtic (with a 4-1 victory in Glasgow and a 0-1 defeat at home), after being in 11th place in the league stage with 15 points.
O Stuttgart is led by one of the most promising German coaches, Sebastian Hoeness, 43 years old, whose squad includes Portuguese Tiago Tomás in attack, with the main stars being scorer Deniz Undav, midfielder Angelo Stiller, defender Max Mittelstad and goalkeeper Alexander Nübel, all internationals for Germany.
Os The Reds (The Reds) have never faced Porto and Braga, having only played with two Portuguese teams, always in the UEFA Cup/Europa League. In 1973/74 they eliminated Vitória de Setúbal in the quarter-finals with a 1-0 victory at home and a 2-2 draw at Bonfim.
In 2004/05, counting for the group stage, they received and beat Benfica 3-0, with the story being different in 2010/11 with the Reds winning 2-1 in Luz and 2-0 in Germany.
O FerencvárosHungarian champion for seven years in a row, never faced Sp. Braga, but already faced FC Porto in 1994 in the 2nd round of the now extinct Cup Winners’ Cup. At the Estádio das Antas, the Porto fans scored a 6-0 victory that resolved the tie, and the trip to Budapest was a mere formality, taken advantage of by the Hungarians to win 2-0.
As green eaglesas they are known, are the club with the most titles in Hungarian football and have as historic players Sándor Kocsis and László Kubala, who were also stars at Barcelona in the 1950s and 1960s.
The team currently has former Irish striker Robbie Keane as its coach and has midfielder Naby Keïta, who played for Liverpool three seasons ago, as well as Brazilian Júlio Romão who represented Santa Clara between 2020 and 2022 and Nigerian striker Dele Yusuf, who played for Estoril between 2022 and 2024.
Ferencváros appears at this point in the season without its great figure, the Hungarian international striker Barnabás Varga, who transferred to AEK Athens for 4.5 million euros, after having helped the Budapest team to come 12th in the league stage, during which they lost just one game, in England, to Nottingham Forest, by 0-4. Node play-off eliminated Ludogorets, having turned the tie around after losing 1-2 away, at home they won 2-0.
Leave a Reply