UEFA Portsmouth-2-0- Guimaraes-F

[Frank Cunha]

William 72, 90+)

UEFA CUP Draw:
Napoli (Italy) v Benfica
Portsmouth (England) v Vitoria Guimaraes
Maritimo v Valencia (Spain)
Vitoria Setubal v Heerenveen (Netherlands)
Braga v Artmedia Petrzalka (Slovakia)

[Buddha14]

Tough trip for the boys im hoping to scrape home by a goal.

[Frank Cunha]

Pompey cut prices for Euro clash
Wed 03 Sep, 04:15 PM



Portsmouth have cut ticket prices for their first European ever tie to placate fans upset by the 6pm kick-off time at Fratton Park.The UEFA Cup first-round first-leg clash with Portugal's Vitoria Guimaraes is set for two weeks on Thursday at Fratton Park and has been scheduled for the early kick-off time by Five.

Pompey officials have already met with various supporters' groups to discuss the issue and have also reduced ticket prices for the game.

But chief executive Peter Storrie admitted: "We fully understand it will not be convenient to all our supporters - and we regret that."

He explained on the club's website: "The UEFA Cup is not the pot of gold that is the Champions League.

"We have to meet all our own expenses and the only way we can capitalise on our success is through the television revenue from the home games.

"Maybe the earlier kick-off time against Vitoria will actually be more attractive to families and our younger fans. We still want to fill the ground and we have cut ticket prices in the hope of creating a great atmosphere for our first European tie."

Pompey have pegged the top admission price to £20 for the game, with junior supporters paying just £5 a head. Fratton Park holds just over 20,000 fans.

Meanwhile new winger Jerome Thomas has been ruled out for at least three weeks after the discovery of a stress fracture in his spine.

Former Arsenal and Charlton midfielder Thomas, who missed Saturday's 3-0 win at Everton, has seen a specialist and will return for a further consultation after the club's medical staff have treated him for the next three weeks.

Striker Kanu is fit again, however, after thigh and ankle problems which have kept him out so far this season. The FA Cup-winning hero, 32, scored in Pompey reserves' 3-1 win over Fulham at the London club's Motspur Park training ground.

Defender Noe Pamarot, recovering from a hamstring injury, was also on target.

[Buddha14]

get a 2-0 win then head to portugal and hold them out for a grinding 0-0 draw

[Frank Cunha]

Flavio Meireles and Dougals suspended for the first game

[Frank Cunha]

Vitoria S.C: The View From Portugal

Story by Jim Bonner 2008-09-15





With the big UEFA Cup kick-off just days away I thought it would be good to get some inside information about our opponents on Thursday.

Meet Luis Fernandes, editor of Vitoria Grande who has kindly answered the questions I put to him about Vitoria S.C, their fans and what they think of Pompey and the upcoming tie.

1) What was your initial reaction to the draw? Had Vitoria fans even heard of Portsmouth FC?

The initial reaction to the draw was a little bit of frustration, because I was hoping for a more "accessible" team. Everyone who enjoys football in Portugal knows Portsmouth, because the Premier League is one of the most spectacular championships in the world.

2) What do you think of the Portsmouth team? Are there any players who particularly worry you?

In the beginning I didn't know that Portsmouth had such a good team but since the draw I have been informed and seen some videos so I see now that you have a lot of good players.

The players who worry me most are naturally the most familiar, such as Jermain Defoe, Peter Crouch, Lassana Diarra, Glen Johnson and Papa Bouba Diop. But I know in general that your squad is full of quality so it will be a tough test for Vitoria.

There are many Portuguese players in England so we see many English games. Portsmouth is known in Guimaraes mostly because of Pedro Mendes who is one of our idols.

3) Most Pompey fans know about FC Porto, Benfica and Sporting Lisbon but know very little about Vitoria Guimaraes. How popular is Vitoria in Portugal compared to these clubs?

In Portugal, 90% of people who like football will support one of the "big three" clubs. The media, especially, is a major cause of the unbalance between these clubs and the rest of the league and so the championship in Portugal is only disputed by these three clubs.

However, Vitoria is a different case. Against all odds, we are a club with many supporters (even outside of Guimaraes) and except for Porto, Benfica and Sporting we are the biggest supported club in the country and we are considered to be the fourth biggest club in Portugal.

4) Are Guimaraes fans looking forward to the game? You must be gutted that you could be playing for Real Madrid if it wasn't for a Dutch linesman?

(Note: With FC Basel leading a Champions League qualifier 2-1, Guimaraes scored a perfectly good goal late on that was ruled out for offside by a dutch linesman. Guimaraes would have gone through on away goals if the goal stood but would have qualified for the Champions League automatically anyway if UEFA upheld the imposed European ban on FC Porto for match fixing.)

Yes, it is clear that we are anxious for the game but we know we have a very hard task. Our supporters are still very frustrated with everything that happened in Basel. We were already harmed in the first game in Guimaraes and we were back in Basel with the annulment of that goal.

Yet life continues and we cannot continue to look back. Vitoria S.C. has enough strength left to show that it is superior to the bastards who stole 5 million Euros from us.

5) What are Guimaraes fans like in general? Is there much of a hooligan element or will Pompey fans be welcomed to Guimaraes with open arms?

For your reception, you have nothing to fear. The "vitorianos" (Vitoria fans) are people who welcome other fans and this was proved in 2005 when 4,000 Bolton fans arrived in Guimaraes. It was a day of happiness in Guimaraes and it will be the same on Thursday, 2nd October too.

There are some violent fans like all clubs but fortunately this is just a minority.

6) What do Guimaraes fans think of Pedro Mendes?

Pedro Mendes is an idol of all Vitoria fans. He is a native of Guimaraes and a supporter of our club. His football surprised our country when he played in our colours and after he moved to Portsmouth, he continued to have a vast legion of fans.

When he celebrated the FA Cup victory with our scarf it was a very important moment for us. (Ed: That's an excellent spot there, something I never would have realised if it hadn't been highlighted. For the record, here's the proof

[Frank Cunha]

Vitoria S.C: The View From Portugal - Portsmouth FC - Fratton Faithful

[Benfica7]

Portsmouth vs Guimarães

First round - 18 September 2008 19:00 CET (18:00 local time) - Fratton Park - Portsmouth

UEFA Delegate
Odd Flattum (NOR)

[Frank Cunha]

UEFA Cup
× 15:30 90'FT [6] Braga 4 - 0 FC Artmedia Petrzalka [11] 3-0

× 16:00 64'2nd [4] Vitoria FC Setubal(N)(T) 0 - 0 SC Heerenveen [7] 0-0

× 16:00 64'2nd [15] Maritimo 0 - 1 Valencia [2] 0-1

× 10:00 0'FT [9] FC Moscow 1 - 2 FC Kobenhavn [4] 0-1

× 10:20 0'FT [2] Litex Lovech 1 - 3 Aston Villa [4] 1-1

× 11:00 0'FT [8] Cherno More 1 - 2 VfB Stuttgart [5] 1-0

× 12:30 0'FT [7] Hapoel Tel Aviv 1 - 2 Saint-Etienne [18] 0-1

× 12:30 0'FT NK Slaven Belupo 1 - 2 CSKA Moscow 1-0

× 12:45 0'FT Banik Ostrava 0 - 1 Spartak Moscow 0-0

× 13:00 0'FT [8] Wolfsburg 1 - 0 FC Rapid Bucuresti [7] 1-0

× 13:00 0'FT [14] Nancy 1 - 0 Motherwell FC [10] 1-0

× 13:00 0'FT [1] Hamburger 0 - 0 Unirea Urziceni [1] 0-0

× 13:00 0'FT [8] Feyenoord Rotterdam 0 - 1 Kalmar FF [1] 0-0

× 13:00 0'FT [8] Brann 2 - 0 Deportivo La Coruna [11] 2-0

× 13:00 0'FT [1] Omonia Nicosia FC 1 - 2 Manchester City [6] 0-0

× 13:00 0'FT [10] Portsmouth 2 - 0 Vitoria Guimaraes [4] 1-0

× 13:15 0'FT Slavia Praha 0 - 0 FC Vaslui 0-0

× 13:30 0'FT MSK Zilina 1 - 1 Levski Sofia 0-0

× 13:30 0'FT Besiktas JK 1 - 0 Metalist Kharkiv 0-0

× 13:30 0'FT Austria Wien 2 - 1 Lech Poznan 0-0

× 13:45 0'FT [6] N.E.C. Nijmegen 1 - 0 Dinamo Bucuresti [3] 0-0

× 13:45 0'FT Politehnica Timisoara 1 - 2 Partizan Belgrade 1-1

× 14:00 0'FT [5] Young Boys 2 - 2 Club Brugge [10] 1-1

× 14:00 0'FT [7] Kayserispor 1 - 2 Paris Saint Germain [3] 0-1

× 14:00 0'FT [9] Bellinzona(N)(T) 3 - 4 Galatasaray [6] 1-1

× 14:30 0'FT [14] Racing de Santander 1 - 0 Honka [2] 0-0

× 14:45 0'FT [4] Sevilla 2 - 0 Red Bull Salzburg [4] 1-0

× 14:45 0'FT [18] Sampdoria 5 - 0 FBK Kaunas [2] 3-0

× 14:45 0'FT [1] Dinamo Zagreb 0 - 0 Sparta Praha [1] 0-0

× 14:45 0'FT [4] Borussia Dortmund 0 - 2 Udinese [7] 0-2

× 14:45 0'FT [3] Brondby 1 - 2 Rosenborg [6] 0-1

× 14:45 0'FT [19] AC Milan 3 - 1 Zurich [2] 1-0

× 14:50 0'FT [13] Rennes 2 - 1 FC Twente Enschede [12] 1-1

× 15:00 0'FT [4] Napoli 3 - 2 Benfica [11] 2-1

× 15:00 0'FT [10] Borac Cacak(N)(T) 1 - 4 Ajax Amsterdam [9] 0-2

× 15:05 0'FT [11] Everton 2 - 2 Standard Liege [3] 2-2

× 15:10 0'FT [20] Tottenham Hotspur 2 - 1 Wisla Krakow [3]