Braga looks to gatecrash Europa League final line-up
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Sporting Braga has no European pedigree as such but on Thursday the minnow from Portugal is hoping to set that right by reaching the Europa League final by defeating Portuguese giant and two-time European Cup winner Benfica as it bids to overturn a 2-1 deficit in the second leg.
Should it succeed in doing so it will ruin the script for the final in terms of what the neutral observer would like to see in Dublin on May 18 - a clash between last season's Portuguese champion Benfica and its bitter rival and the team which ran away with the title this season, Porto.
Porto looks all but assured of booking its ticket for Dublin as it goes to Villarreal in Spain with a 5-1 lead from the first leg, and having not lost a match in a major competition this season it would be a huge surprise were Villarreal to deny it.
Braga has good reason to be confident of gatecrashing the final especially if it plays at the same level it did during the Champions League group stage when it beat Arsenal 2-0 at home last November.
Braga has had another decent league campaign and lies third, though 14 points behind second-placed Benfica, but its battling midfielder Leandro Salino believes that league position will not count in what is to the side the equivalent of a final.
Salino is confident a combination of the away goal and its formidable home record in European competition this season - it has conceded just three goals, all in a Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk, and won six of its eight games.
"We may have lost the first leg but our goal is a real bonus and takes some of the disappointment out of the result," he said.
"We have an excellent opportunity to reach the final and we are confident that if we maintain our previous form at home we can do just that."
Benfica, though, is determined to salvage something from the season and beating Porto in the final would be huge consolation for failing to give Porto a run for its money in the title race - the leader has a massive 21 point lead with two matches remaining.
Man for man it has a stronger line-up than Braga with the imposing Paraguayan striker Oscar Cardozo leading the line, though, he is much more than just a target man as he demonstrated with his superb freekick in the first leg which proved to be the decisive goal in that match.
Its left-sided Portuguese international midfielder Fabio Coentrao is under no illusions how difficult a task Braga will present.
"We wanted to win by more (in the first leg)," the 23-year-old told uefa.com
"But the reality is that we won 2-1 and we have a difficult game ahead of us in Braga. We have to arrive in Braga ready to achieve our objective and win."
Villarreal has nothing to lose in its home match and at least goes into it having recovered some morale after a 2-1 home league win over Getafe last weekend.
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