An FC Porto led by José Mourinho won its first UEFA Cup 20 years ago by beating Scottish Celtic (3-2, after extra time), in a famous final framed by the heat of Seville.
On May 21, 2003, at the Estádio Olímpico de La Cartuja, a goal by Brazilian Derlei, in the 115th minute, sealed the first Portuguese victory in the second UEFA competition on Spanish soil, two decades after Benfica stumbled with Anderlecht (0-1 defeat in Belgium and 1-1 draw in Lisbon), when the decision was played over two games.
The confrontation refereed by the Slovakian Lubos Michel in Andalusia was exciting, with the Swede Henrik Larsson (minutes 47 and 57) reacting twice with his header to the first goal for the ‘ninja’ (45+1) and another by the Russian Dmitri Alenitchev ( 54 ) to drag the uncertainty to the extension.
Faced with the ephemeral rule of the tiebreaker for the silver goal being ineffective for the first time -the immediate victory was attributed to the team that reached the advantage at the end of the first half of extra time-, the duel lasted another half hour, with FC Porto playing in numerical superiority.
Indifferent to the dominance of the Celtic fans inside and outside the stadium, Derlei ‘started’ the expulsion with a double yellow card of Franco-Guinean Bobo Baldé, in the 96th minute, and became a ‘hero’ in the 115th minute, when he scored his goal number 11 and equaled Larsson in the leadership of the top scorers in the competition, being chosen as the best player in the final.
FC Porto won the fourth of its current seven international trophies, 16 years after successive successes in the Champions Cup, the Intercontinental Cup and the European Super Cup, with José Mourinho celebrating tearfully and kneeling on the pitch.
The 40-year-old from Setúbal continued to inspire a generation of coaches the following season and led the ‘destroying’ football of the ‘dragons’ to win the Champions League (3-0 against Monaco, in Gelsenkirchen), before turning to English Chelsea in 2004.
José Mourinho holds three more continental titles on his resume, including a ‘Champions’, at the service of Inter Milan (2009/10), a Europa League, with Manchester United (2016/17), and a Europa Conference League, with Rome (2021). / 22), which he currently directs.
Eight months dispersed the ‘blue and white’ walk in the 32nd edition of the UEFA Cup, which was played only in two legs and started on September 19, 2002, in the already demolished Estádio das Antas, in Porto, with a home win against Poland in Warsaw (6-0), followed by a mere formality in Plock, despite the defeat (0-2).
FC Porto made their mission easier again in the second round by beating Austria Vienna (1-0) in the same setting where, in the 1986/87 season, they had won the European Cup for the first time (2- 1 against Bayern Munich). ), also winning the match (2-0).
A couple of unfortunate plays by goalkeeper Guillaume Warmuz would help to ‘dispatch’ Lens (3-0) in the next stage, which even so achieved an insufficient success in France (0-1), with the Cameroonian Rigobert Song scoring after a foul on the goalkeeper Vítor Baía.
The Turkish team from Denizlispor also had little time to ‘dream’ in the round of 16 and were defeated by Antas (6-1), with all the goals coming after the break, before imposing the first draw of the competition on FC Porto in the second leg (2-2).
That habit of solving the qualifiers quickly changed against Panathinaikos in the ‘quarters’, requiring a ‘double’ from Derlei (2-0, after extra time) to reverse in Greece the solitary goal scored in Portugal by the Polish Emmanuel Olisadebe (0 – 1 ).
An early goal by Argentine Claudio López opened the way to a problematic mission against Lazio, by the well-known Fernando Couto, in the ‘midfield’, which FC Porto tried to uncomplicate with two more goals from the ‘ninja’, one from Maniche and the other from Hélder Postiga, in a historic ‘rain serenade’ in Antas.
José Mourinho received a red card that night -after removing Lucas Castromán and delaying a throw-in from the ‘laziali’- and he would contemplate from the stands the ‘null’ in Italy (0-0), whose most distressing moments ranged from the Postiga was sent off on the way to half-time and a penalty from Claudio López saved by Vítor Baía in the second half.
Celtic’s desire for a 100% Porto European final made it impossible, beating Boavista (0-1) at the Bessa at the same time, with Henrik Larsson breaking the tie brought from Glasgow (1-1), where had ‘cancelled’ an own goal by Belgian Joos Valgaeren.
‘Executioners’ in the previous phases of the Lithuanians from Suduva, the English from Blackburn and Liverpool, the Spanish from Celta de Vigo or the Germans from Stuttgart, the Scots wanted to succeed at a continental level 36 years after the triumph over Inter Milan ( 2 – 1) in the final of the 1966/67 edition of the Champions Cup, played at the Estadio Nacional, in Oeiras.
Celtic examined the soul of FC Porto to the limit, who went to Andalusia without Hélder Postiga, suspended, and the Lithuanian Edgaras Jankauskas, injured, being deprived during the game of Costinha and captain Jorge Costa, both substituted due to physical problems.
Not even the late expulsion of Nuno Valente conditioned the consecration of the successors of Dutch Feyenoord in the UEFA Cup, finished off on the field by the ‘genius’ Deco, who ‘designed’ Porto’s first two goals in the final with class of the predestined.
FC Porto rescued its mystique and ended the 2002/03 season in celebration, reconquering the Portuguese First League four years later, with an 11-point lead over vice-leader Benfica, and beating União de Leiria (1-0) in the decision of the Portuguese Cup, in Jamor.
Eight years later, Portugal had unprecedented absolute representation in a continental final, with the ‘dragons’ beating Sporting de Braga (1-0), in Dublin, in the 2010/11 edition of the Europa League, the name of the competition which replaced the old UEFA Cup.
Source: TSF
