Porto look to pounce on Rapid's Portuguese record
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Article summary
Back in the hunt for the UEFA Europa League trophy for the first time since winning the UEFA Cup in 2002/03, FC Porto will hope to take advantage of SK Rapid Wien's poor record in Portugal.
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Back in the hunt for the UEFA Europa League trophy for the first time since winning the UEFA Cup in 2002/03, FC Porto will hope to take advantage of SK Rapid Wien's poor record on Portuguese soil as Group L kicks off.
Previous meetings
• The teams are meeting for the first time in UEFA club competition.
• A two-legged 2002/03 UEFA Cup second round tie against Rapid's neighbours FK Austria Wien represents the sum total of Porto's experience of Austrian opposition. They won 1-0 in Vienna and 2-0 at home.
• Rapid's six games against Portuguese sides have ended W1 D2 L3 (W0 D0 L3 away). They have never scored a goal in Portugal, with the aggregate score from those ties 7-0 in the hosts' favour.
Match background
• This is Porto's first season in this competition since José Mourinho's Dragons won the 2002/03 UEFA Cup, beating Celtic FC 3-2 in the final in Seville.
• Porto have won all but one of their last five European home games, going down 1-0 to Chelsea FC in last season's UEFA Champions League group stage.
• Rapid are unbeaten in seven European fixtures, six of them this season.
• The Viennese side have competed in two UEFA Champions League group stage campaigns and one in the UEFA Europa League, losing eight of their nine away fixtures by an aggregate score of 26-4.
Team facts
• Porto's new coach André Villas-Boas started his career as a teenager in the club's scouting department, and was on Mourinho's staff as one of his assistants by the time the Dragons won the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League. He followed the 'Special One' to Chelsea FC and then FC Internazionale Milano, before going it alone as coach of A. Académica de Coimbra last season. Porto hired him in June.
• Rapid coach since 2006, Peter Pacult played for all three of the big Vienna sides – Wiener SC, Rapid and Austria Wien – as a striker. He won two league titles with FC Tirol Innsbruck, as well as earning 24 Austria caps. A losing UEFA Cup Winners' Cup finalist with Rapid in 1984/85, he later coached TSV 1860 München, FC Kärnten and 1. FC Dynamo Dresden, before claiming the Austrian title with Rapid in 2007/08.
