A small Portuguese football club, fresh off an improbable cup victory, is preparing for a dream clash against FC Porto while remaining grounded by its financial realities and primary league ambitions.
Ricardo Oliveira, the majority shareholder holding 90% of the Sintrense football club’s corporate entity, emphasized that his team will not go to the Estádio do Dragão simply to lose. Instead, they aim to demonstrate their capabilities against the top-tier giant.
“We are not going to the Dragão to lose the game, but to show our arguments, aware that FC Porto has more than us,” Oliveira told Lusa, the national news agency.
The upcoming match, part of the Portuguese Cup’s fourth round, offers a significant financial boost to the fourth-tier club.
“Going to the Dragão is a joy and a good ‘cushion’ for a team like Sintrense,” Oliveira explained. He stressed, however, that players must not divert their attention from the Campeonato de Portugal, where they are actively pursuing promotion.
Sintrense recently eliminated first-tier club Rio Ave with a 3-2 victory, a match Oliveira described as incredibly tense, causing him to momentarily leave the stands before returning for the final minutes.
“With all due respect to Rio Ave, which on paper was much stronger than Sintrense, this is football and the Cup is like that,” Oliveira said. “Football and sport have these things and on that day Sintrense was better.”
The club also knocked out second-tier side Vizela in an earlier round, showcasing its unexpected resilience.
Oliveira attributed Sintrense’s current success and improved performance over last season to strong leadership, diligent work, a competent new coaching staff, and a robust team spirit among the players.
This will be Sintrense’s third encounter with FC Porto in recent years in the Portuguese Cup. They were eliminated in their previous two meetings, suffering 3-0 and 5-0 defeats respectively in the 2024/25 and 2021/22 seasons.
Despite the past results and playing away, Oliveira remains hopeful. “We were eliminated in the past and as expected we will be eliminated again. Especially playing FC Porto at the Dragão, but miracles happen.”
Oliveira, a fan of rival club Sporting Lisbon who ran for its presidency in recent elections, expressed high regard for FC Porto and a “genuine sympathy” for its president, André Villas-Boas, with whom he maintains an “excellent relationship.”
“We will give our best, because that is the spirit of Sintrense, and at the final whistle we will see who won, but the greater probability is that it will be FC Porto,” he acknowledged, while noting that favorites do not always win in football.