Favoritism is just a statute. Doesn’t score goals or save penalties. This was more than proven in the semi-finals of the League Cup, a competition tailored to the “big ones” – history shows that, in 16 past finals, only one did not feature Benfica, FC Porto or Sporting. There was a widespread impression that, in this Saturday’s final (7:45 pm, SIC), there would be a derby Lisbon team in Leiria, but it won’t happen, due to the merit of two teams that don’t believe in favoritism. Sp. Braga and Estoril, one of them will have a trophy and an injection of morale for the remainder of the season.
Returning to the word favoritism, based on history, it will be Sp. Braga, who beat Sporting in the “halfs”, who enters this final with that status. The “arsenalistas” have already won this competition twice (2013 and 2020) and were in two more finals (2017 and 2021), something that is consistent with the place they have consolidated in Portuguese football – in the last 20 seasons, just not They were in the top 4 of the championship in five of them. Estoril, on the other hand, only has one Cup final in its history, but it’s not this one – it was in the Portuguese Cup final in 1943-44, defeated by Benfica 8-0. In the League Cup, it’s the furthest he’s ever gone.
Vasco Seabra, Estoril’s coach, is the one who takes on the unexpected dimension of this final, which will also be a new experience for him. “I am inexperienced in finals, just like the club. Unless I am mistaken, Estoril has not been in this situation for almost 80 years. Are outsiders, we are enjoying the game. It’s an interesting moment for Portuguese football because we have a final that was little expected”, analyzes the coach of the team that has already beaten FC Porto and Benfica in the League Cup, but is in an uncomfortable position in the I League – 15th place.
As for Artur Jorge, in his second full-time season as head coach of Sp. Braga, this is his second final in consecutive seasons – he was at Jamor in 2023, defeated by FC Porto. The former central defender does not assume the favoritism of the Minho team because a final is a game of a different nature from all the others.
“I don’t think the finals have favorites. There is the temptation to find a more favorite team, but, as a coach, I know that these are two teams that deserve to be here and will want to win”, reinforces Artur Jorge.
And the opponent being called Estoril and not Benfica, he adds, could even be an added difficulty, considering the final that Sp. Braga lost against Moreirense in 2017: “This is the most difficult final we could have, because we have to control expectations. The ambition cannot be different from that of our opponent and it would be no different if the opponent were Benfica. But we also know the difficulties we will face, against a strong opponent.”