Europa League Final – Porto versus Braga: Second half review
Braga started off the second half with a fighting spirit after suffering a blow late on in the first half due to Radamel Falcao’s first goal of the match for Porto. With the score line stalled at 1-0 in Dublin, Braga had a golden
opportunity to draw level in the early stages of the second half as the ball fell kindly for Mossoro.
Braga’s striker dispossessed http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Helton-c16018 who rushed out to deny Mossoro any time and space on the ball as he palmed
the target-man’s shot away towards safety. Braga also made to half time changes to signal their offensive mentality for the second half of the match as Kaka replaced Rodriguez and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hugo-Viana-c16425 was replaced by Mossoro.
These changes would’ve brought immediate dividends to Braga if Mossoro had finished off his chance in the 46th minute. In the 48th minute, Sapunaru went into the referee’s book for a wild tackle on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alan-c4244. In
the 55th minute Garcia followed his opponent into the referee’s book after he barged into Valera just outside the Braga penalty area.
In the 59th minute, Mossoro was also shown a yellow card for his protests after the referee awarded Porto a free kick following the striker’s challenge on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Hulk-c16436 near the half way line. In the 65th minute, Braga
were forced into changing things once again in order to gain a route back into the match as Meyong came on for http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lima-c22267 in the midfield region.
Porto soon responded with a substitution of their own as Belluschi replaced Guarin for the Portuguese champions. In the 79th minute, Andre Villas-Boas made another change as James Rodriguez came on for Valera. In the
85th minute, Belluschi had a brilliant chance to add to Porto’s advantage but his shot from around about 25 yards out just missed the Braga goal by a few inches as the score line remained at one nil in favour of Villas-Boas’ men.
Nonetheless, the match finally came to an end with a victory for Porto which also gave them the Europa League title. The Portuguese giants defended resolutely in the second half against a resurgent Braga following Falcao’s goal
in the first half of the match. All in all, it was a cagey affair which was partially disappointing as both the teams didn’t play to the best of their abilities in an all star final.
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