....Anywhoo...got back from Portugal last night...thanks for all the ticket advice
As expected, it was no problem whatsoever getting tickets for Sporting v Academica. Got the metro down to the ground on the Saturday morning having arrived in Lisbon the previous night. Had a look round the outside of the ground and was suitably impressed. Strolled up to the ticket office and got two tickets for 25 Euros each. Tickets as it happened, which turned out to be pretty much the best in the house. Right on the half way line and about 15-20 rows back. Top drawer. The game was ok. Academica would walk all over Swindon (but then, who wouldn't?) Both sides had a goal disallowed before Sporting got a couple just before the break, both scored by some bloke called Yannick. The first a 25 yard screamer and the other a cheeky little lob over the keeper from 20 yards. He looks just the sort of player Wenger would sign for Arsenal, even though he has about 20 of them already i.e. small/very quick/very skilful. Second half was pretty
meh! and there was no further scoring but it was a great experience nonetheless. The crowd was 'only' 24,000 odd in a 52,000 capacity stadium but it didn't look less than half full for some reason I can't quite fathom.
After a few more days in Lisbon (beautiful city BTW, well worth a visit) we got the train up to Porto (about 3 hours) for the big one. Again, the next morning we got the metro down to Estadio Dragao. After the mandatory wandering round the ground and the accompanying 'oohing and aahing' I simply strolled up to the ticket office where there was no queue and requested two tickets for the Porto v Sporting game. OK, so the equivalent seats to what we had in Lisbon would have been 60 Euros which I thought was a tad steep so I went for 44 Euro jobs in the corner. When we got in the ground on the Sunday night though, they were still absolutely brilliant seats. As it turned out, this was Porto's first game having clinched the Championship at Benfica a couple of weeks before so as you would expect, there was much fanfare and flag waving (and a few flares) and generally a pretty darned good, rousing,
uplifting atmosphere (remember when you last felt that at a football ground?). Sporting were clearly not interested in joining the party and brought only about 1000 fans max (plus a few dotted around the stadium). The vast army of 'robo cop' policemen were only called into action once when the Sporting fans spilled out over on to the perimeter track. There was never any sign of trouble that I saw though. Which, being a serial coward, I was pretty happy about. The game itself was an absolute cracker jack with Porto, having initially falling behind, coming out on top 3-2. When you've been used to watching STFC for far too many years, the skill levels were, at times, breath taking. For Sporting, I was particularly impressed with the keeper, Rui Patricio, the Chilean midlfielder Matias Fernandes, Andre Santos and from the first game, Helder Postega (ex Spurs) as well as Yannick. Porto at times, when they really clicked were fantastic. In particular I liked the left back Álvaro Pereira who was slightly better than Michael Rose (OK, it's an unfair comparison, I know) The left winger Silvestre Varela was decent as was the no. 9 Falcao and the fantastically and entirely appropriately named 'Hulk'.
As I said, Porto is absolutely stunning. Easily the most picturesque European city I've been to (Lisbon's not a million miles behind though). So to conclude, if you're thinking of going to either of these places, then do it. You won't be disappointed. Wherever you go in Portugal and you want to go a game just go. You will have no problems getting in whatever the fixture and it should be a great experience even if it's one of the smaller clubs. Most of all though, at a time when I've lost all interest in the Premiership, would not watch England if they were playing in my back garden and don't even really want think about STFC, this experience showed me that I
do still love the game after all. Happy days
