Ukra on 2011 triumph: Hulk, Falcao, Villas-Boas key, manager the secret | OneFootball

The former footballer Ukra was part of the FC Porto squad that won the Europa League in 2010/11, although in the final he was playing for Braga – he had been loaned by the Dragons halfway through the season and, therefore, could not play for the Minho team in European competitions.

“If Braga won, I would also feel like a winner because I was part of that group, trained there every day, and gave my best, even knowing I couldn't play in the Europa League. I went to the final, in which we lost, but I was a champion. It's not very usual, but it's another Ukra story to tell,” shared the former Portuguese international forward, aged 37, who was linked to the blue and whites between 2007 and 2013 and played on loan for the Minho team from 2011 to 2012.

On May 18, 2011, FC Porto, then led by the current president André Villas-Boas, won the seventh and last international trophy in its history by beating Braga 1-0 in Dublin, with a goal from Colombian Radamel Falcao.

“In terms of spectacle, it wasn't a great final, but it was well contested and very tactical. There's always that tension, and sometimes the fear of failing is felt more than the desire to do something different,” said Ukra, who, after the final, stayed with the Braga team instead of joining the celebrations of the blue and white squad.

The former forward received the champion's medal after starting in the 3-0 victory over Genk – a team then featuring players like Thibaut Courtois and Kevin De Bruyne – in the first leg of the playoff to access the group stage, and as a substitute used in the 3-1 comeback against Rapid Vienna, in the fifth and penultimate round of Group L, on a snow-covered pitch decided by a Falcao hat-trick.

“He scored several beautiful goals in that campaign and was exceptional in finishing, ethics, and daily work. When you are professional, have quality, and are in a winning club with all the conditions, it's normal for things to happen,” he observed about the record of 17 goals scored by the Colombian in a Europa League edition.

Besides winning the second European club competition – as had already happened in 2002/03, in the then-called UEFA Cup – FC Porto became national champions unbeaten and also won the Portuguese Cup and the Supertaça Cândido de Oliveira, as a result of the only season led by André Villas-Boas, who would head to Chelsea in the summer of 2011.

“The big secret was having someone like him, who wasn't very good at one thing, but a ‘good more’ in everything. Then, we had great players and started to form a great collective. Obviously, there were quarrels, but that happens in all teams because we are competitive and work daily to earn our place. Hulk and Falcao scored many goals, but there was no envy of one scoring more than the other,” illustrated Ukra.

Players like Nicolás Otamendi – now captain of Benfica – João Moutinho, signed from Sporting, Souza, and James Rodríguez, as well as Helton, Rolando, Álvaro Pereira, Fernando, Fredy Guarín, Fernando Belluschi, or Silvestre Varela, were important pieces in that FC Porto team. Ukra left the Dragons in the winter after eight games, enough to collect three trophies.

“I was a young man who wanted to play and show value, knowing it would be very difficult to have more opportunities and minutes in that winning FC Porto,” acknowledged André Filipe Monteiro, better known in football as Ukra.

Trained at FC Porto, the winger returned from loans to Varzim and Olhanense – a club with which he rose to the top tier as the winner of the II Liga in 2008/09 – before heading to Braga, then national vice-champions.

The Minho team, coached by Domingos Paciência – a former FC Porto forward – was eliminated from the Champions League group stage and moved to the Europa League knockout rounds, with Ukra unable to represent another team in continental competitions that same season, a rule that UEFA has since abolished.

After eliminating Lech Poznan, Liverpool, and Dynamo Kyiv, Braga overcame Benfica in the semi-finals and faced FC Porto in a final that was the eighth of 11 contested between clubs from the same country, in a list that includes Sevilla, Villarreal, CSKA Moscow, and Spartak.

“It's different when competing against English, Spanish, or Italian teams, which have different budgets, players with more quality, and other types of arguments. It's difficult to repeat [a 100% Portuguese final], but who knows if it might happen again this year,” concluded Ukra.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.