Everything André Villas Boas touches continues to turn into silverware. Porto claimed their first European trophy here since the José Mourinho era and, while the continent's up-and-coming manager shifted the focus on to players who have scintillated this season and dedicated victory to the late Sir Bobby Robson, the 33-year-old's stock simply continues to rise. Suitors will be taking note.
This was not the perfect performance from Porto, the final's overwhelming favourites, with Braga contributing to a tense and tight contest, but it still yielded the glittering prize courtesy of Falcao's solitary goal.
That, in itself, served as a mark of underlying quality. Villas Boas is now the youngest man to claim a European trophy, some 95 days junior to Gianluca Vialli who won the European Cup Winners' Cup with Chelsea in 1998. Everything about the Portuguese's style and strut suggests his managerial career will not wilt like that of the Italian.
The young pretender wants to remain at the Estadio do Dragão for at least a further year, keen as he is to sample a Champions League campaign with the club he supported as a boy. That may disappoint his admirers, though his is a desire to continue to learn.
"My [contract] release clause is very, very high," he said. "I'm proud of that. I have ambition to leave a mark in the game and win much more, but I want a short career, 10 to 12 years, because it's very stressful. But this is my club, my home town, and I'm proud to be here. It would not be easy to tear apart [from this club].
"I'm just a gear in a very effective club with super talent. That's the reality. If you don't have good players, you run into a wall. But I'd like to dedicate this to Sir Bobby Robson, who has already left us. I never had the opportunity to say farewell to him. I'd like to dedicate this to him and his wife, Elsie, and thank him for everything he's done for me.
"But also to Pep Guardiola – who has always been an inspiration for me with his methodology and the way he plays such fantastic football – and to José Mourinho, who introduced me to professional football."
Mourinho, of course, followed up Uefa Cup success in 2003 with a European Cup 12 months later, a remarkable feat Villas Boas has suggested can not be emulated. Even so, and with the Portuguese Cup final against Vitória de Guimarães to come on Sunday, nothing seems beyond him.
Porto had always been expected to prevail at the Aviva. Braga may have dropped out of the Champions League into this competition, but they finished fourth and 38 points adrift of the title winners.
Their manager Domingos Paciência, who will now stand down from his post, pointed to "small details" as having gone against his team here, yet it was profligacy that really cost them.
Set up to bite on the counter, they needed Custodio to be more accurate with his early volley and the substitute, Mossoró, to convert an even more tantalising opportunity seconds after half-time. Helton, on his 33rd birthday, saved that attempt with his legs. Even in the frantic final stages, Braga never came closer to registering.
They were playing catch-up by then, Falcao's first meaningful contribution a gloriously cushioned header from Fredy Guarín's centre seconds before the break having prised stubborn opponents apart. That was the Colombian's 17th goal in Europe this season, extending his record tally for a campaign and, had Porto generated better service to their striker, this win might have been more comfortable.
Instead, the margin of victory remained slender with Villa Boas citing mild disappointment that this had "not been the spectacle" he had envisaged. Yet this club do not deal in regret these days.
No comments:
Post a Comment