Porto sitting pretty in Dublin

THEY call Porto ‘the Dragons’ and, even if it was all more huff than Puff, they lived up to their nickname by breathing just about enough fire to incinerate the dream of battling Braga in the Europa League Final.

If truth be told, the action was massively underwhelming but it’s still to the considerable credit of the local organisers — and the input of the visiting fans — that the setting presented more of a spectacle than did the game itself, as Ireland successfully hosted its first ever European club final.

The Aviva Stadium had been rebranded as the Dublin Arena by UEFA for one night only but it might as well have been the Estadio do Draga itself, as the non-stop singing and dancing supporters of the Portuguese giants vastly outnumbered their counterparts in a short of capacity but, considering the lack of a glamour contestant, still more than respectable crowd of around 45,391.