1. Who are they?
They are a football team from Portugal, hailing from the city of Braga (hence the name 🙂 )
2. What is their stadium called?
Etadio Municipal (30,154 capacity)
3. When are we playing them?
Home Leg: Thursday 15th September 2011
KO 20.05
Away Leg: Wednesday 30 November 2011 (or Thursday 1st December 2011!)
KO 19.00 (CET)
4. How did they reach the group stage?
By finishing 4th in the Portuguese League! Beat ‘Young Boys’ on Away Goals in Play Off Stage. (0-0 home, 2-2 away)
5. Who is their top scorer?
Last season none of their players scored more than the striker Lima’s 6 goals. Alan scored 5. More on him in a mo’…
Put into perspective, the Portuguese League’s top scorer last season was Porto’s ‘Hulk’ with 23.
Perhaps Alex McLeish used to be their striker coach? Ahem.
6. Who is their captain?
A Brazilian striker known only as ‘Alan’. Doesn’t sound too Brazilian does he?
7. Who is their manager?
Leonardo Jardim (Portuguese!)
8. What is their UEFA history?
Won the Intertoto Cup in 2008, Beaten finalists (by Porto of Portugal) in the Europa League, 2011, where they beat Lech Pozna?, Liverpool, Dynamo Kiev and fellow Portuguese Benfica on the way.
9. How good are they?
See above, but also they were Potuguese League Runners Up, in 2009-10 season. Portuguese Cup and Super Cup winners in 1998. It could be argued they weren’t particularly successful for the ten years between 1998 and 2008, and have never won the Portuguese title, but they must obviously be seen as a bigger threat than Nacional were! Their recent success is also very good indeed.
10. What is their website?
11. Any British ‘scalps’?
They beat Portsmouth at home in Harry Redknapp’s last match in charge of the club before he headed to Tottenham. 3-0. (UEFA Cup 2010).
They beat Celtic 3-0 and Arsenal 2-0 in 2010/11 Champions’ League at home.
(If it’s any reassurance, Celtic and Arsenal (6-0!) won the ‘away’ legs)
They beat Liverpool 1-0 over two legs to knock the Scousers out of the 2010/11 Europa League.
12. Random reason we might want to beat them beyond the obvious?
(Thanks to Wikipedia) – The fans of Braga are known as Arsenalistas due to their team home kit that resembles that of English club Arsenal.
I truly cannot wait to see more European football at St. Andrew’s, and it can only be positive for our league attendances as more people will be interested to see if we can replicate the Nacional-beating form against the likes of Milwall!
Keep Right On!
Russell Dempsey
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