SC Braga - teetering on the edge of something spectacular as they look to shatter the Europa League glass ceiling
In 2011, Sporting Clube de Braga did something truly seismic. Having already impressively managed to qualify for the Champions League proper, the Minho outfit claimed 3rd in their group and dropped into the Europa League round of 32; after defeating each of Lech Poznan, Liverpool, Dynamo Kiev and Benfica over two legs, the once unheralded, the entirely unfancied, and the financially outweighted, Sporting Clube de Braga battled their way into the Final of the second most prestigious club competition the continent of Europe has to offer, against all the odds.
That scarcely believable run to the final ultimately ended in devastating disappointment. Defeated in Dublin by compatriots FC Porto by a slender 1-0 scoreline, Braga, the plucky underdogs, were left ruing a potentially once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. A decade later, the dream of managing to match that effort suddenly feels tantalisingly possible.
Under the stewardship of boyhood Braga fan Carlos Carvalhal, Os Arsenalistas find themselves potentially just 3 matches away from an unexpected final in Seville.
This wasn’t, really, supposed to happen. As financial disparities between the very best and all the rest continue to widen, as the elite continue to strengthen and thus weaken their already unfancied counterparts, and as the Europa League was streamlined to just 32 teams in order to increase the competitiveness and strength of an already highly reputable competition, SC Braga were not one of the clubs expected to be battling it out at the latter stages of the competition.
Since 2011, though Braga may have continued to improve and establish themselves as a genuine European perennial, the likelihood of even coming close to lifting the Europa League trophy has only diminished. The quality of the teams that drop into Europe’s secondary competition from the Champions League has only increased, while this Braga team are startlingly young as the club look to shift their long-term focus to their youth team in what is something of a transitional period for a club looking for a strategy to begin properly competing for their domestic title consistently.
Their vision for the future, it seems, has come several years earlier than planned - and only a matter of months ago, the prospect of a deep run in the Europa League seemed like an unrealistic dream rather than a genuine possibility.
Having been handed a relatively favourable Europa League group containing Red Star Belgrade, Midtjylland and Ludogorets, Braga stuttered their way into the knockout rounds with just 10 points from 6 games, having been defeated by both Red Star and Midtjylland in the process, only progressing to the Europa League play-off round by finishing 2nd in the group despite having been the pot 1 team in the draw. In fact, they only managed to merely stay in the competition after Midtjylland were held to an unlikely draw against Ludogorets on the final day of the group stage; had the Danish side managed to defeat their Bulgarian opponents as expected, Braga would’ve had to settle for 3rd in the group, and would have thus dropped into the Europa Conference League, which would have represented a humbling outcome for the increasingly ambitious Portuguese outfit.
Instead, Braga scraped a 2nd place finish, meaning they had to face one of the Champions League 3rd place teams in the Europa League play-off round in order to join Red Star Belgrade and the other teams to have topped their respective UEL groups in the round of 16. Considering the strength of the teams that finished 3rd in their Champions League groups - which included the likes of Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla and RB Leipzig - it seemed a tall order to expect Braga to manage to advance, and their European adventure felt as if it was to come to a fairly early end.
The draw was, however, kind to Carvalhal’s side, handing them a two-legged tie against the overachieving Sheriff Tiraspol. Though the Moldovan side had phenomenally beaten Real Madrid in the UCL just a matter of weeks earlier, they represented a beatable team, and Braga were, in fact, favourites to progress. A surprise 2-0 first leg defeat in Moldova, however, made things very complicated indeed, and it looked as though Braga had blown their chances of keeping their European ambitions alive, which would have cemented this as a disappointing season for the club, even if they did represent a side in transition.
This, in many ways, illustrates the tightrope that Braga are so constantly having to navigate. There is, after all, a very fine line between success and failure at a footballing institution like SC Braga. Historically, and currently, they represent a distant 4th best in the Portuguese top flight; cracking into the top 3 in their domestic league at the expense of at least one of Benfica, Porto or Sporting would therefore obviously amount to a successful and impressive season, regardless of their cup exploits - though they have then so clearly established themselves as the ‘best of the rest’ in the country that anything less than a 4th place finish would be deemed a clear failure. There is, therefore, little margin for error, and also little chance of earning considerable praise.
This season is no different; Braga find themselves residing in 4th in the table, now fairly comfortably ahead of a once surging Gil Vicente, but quite significantly off the pace of 3rd place Benfica, who occupy the final Champions League spot allocated to Portuguese football teams.
When they lost that first leg meeting with Sheriff in what is essentially the Europa League round of 32, it coincided with Braga being eliminated from both domestic cup competitions very prematurely and sitting 4th in the Primeira Liga, only narrowly above Gil Vicente and way off the pace of Benfica in 3rd. This was beginning to look like a below par campaign for Braga, who lifted the Portuguese Cup the previous season and finished 3rd in the league the campaign prior to that.
Braga, however, managed to turn their fortunes around in the reverse fixture, completely dominating Sheriff as they secured an entirely unflattering 2-0 home victory, seeing the match go to extra time and, then, penalties. Braga advanced, 3-2 from the spot kicks. Suddenly, Braga’s once underwhelming season was right back on track, with all their eggs firmly in the Europa basket.
Braga, since the start of the season, have slowly been improving, and have finally been building some consistency. They faced Monaco in the Europa League round of 16 as underdogs - but a remarkable 2-0 home win was followed up by a 1-1 draw in France, and they found themselves in a European quarter final for the first time since 2016. On that occasion, they were comprehensively defeated by Shakhtar Donetsk, losing home and away by an aggregate scoreline of 6-1.
This time around, things have gone differently. Facing a side in Rangers that dumped them out of the competition at the round of 32 only two seasons earlier, Braga were narrow underdogs heading into the tie - but a 1-0 victory at home ensures they are taking the narrowest of advantages to Ibrox in what will be an enthralling and captivating battle in Glasgow.
They know they face the toughest of tests to hold onto their slender lead and progress to the semi-final of the competition - but fans are, understandably, beginning to envisage what could be about to happen.
Before the tournemant started, Braga were effectively 44th favourites to win the Europa League, given a 5% chance of eaching the semi-final and a less than 1% chance of lifting the trophy. Today, they remain heavy outsiders, given just a 16% chance of reaching the final. But statistics count for very little at this stage of the competition, and Braga’s extraordinary exploits have a fanbase dreaming of the near-impossible once again.
