The men of FC Braga have a vital task tonight.
I am sure that it is the earnest wish of several European cities is that the team organised by Carlos Augusto Soares da Costa Faria Carvalhal can stop the Sevco roadshow.
Of course, if you’re still in a cup competition, you can reach the final.
That will be a nightmare scenario for the good people of Seville.
Like the people of Manchester in 2008, they should not have to clean up the detritus of Unsurpassed Dignity.
It is too contrived for a novel that the Andalusians, who still have warm memories of the green and white visitors to their beautiful city in 2003, will have to see that not all Glaswegians are the same.
The award from FIFA was well deserved.
Fresh from their bottle-throwing criminality on Sunday, there will be some of The People in Portugal at the moment.
In the opinion of your humble correspondent, the Portuguese are the nicest people in Europe.
Quiet, genuine and polite, they don’t deserve to be in the same space as the people who think that the racist Famine Song is funny or who venerates a member of the Ku Klux Klan.
Despite the best efforts of the Stenography Corps after the match, it is difficult to “Old Firm” what happened at Ibrox.
Dear reader, I find that there is something very off about this request from Police Scotland.
You can read it here.
When I first saw it, I checked with someone in a position to know, and he confirmed to me that Ibrox, like Celtic Park, has high-resolution CCTV.
He told me that the person who threw the bottle at a Hearts player last December was located, via CCTV footage, the next day and was immediately dealt with by the Parkhead club.
Therefore, it should not take many hours to scan the footage of the Copland Road Stand during the 15 minutes of halftime last Sunday.
Yet still, the bottle thrower remains at large.
Perhaps currently in Portugal?
Then there was the SECOND bottle-throwing incident which resulted in a Celtic employee requiring medical treatment.
I’m told that the likely location of that offender was in the more expensive area of the main stand.
Once more, the CCTV should be of assistance there.
The length of time this is taking appears strange.
There will be a match delegate from UEFA who will be present in the Estádio Municipal de Braga tonight.
Unlike the cultural tolerance shown to them in Fair Caledonia, the folks at Nyon do not approve of discriminatory chanting.
Consequently, it would be advisable if the Ibrox klanbase leave their anti-Irish racism at the door in Braga.
UEFA has already found Sevco’s delightful fans guilty of racism in 2019.
I’m not sure if Planet Fitba actually has a line that the Ibrox klanbase can cross before the entire toxic franchise is told to do one.
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I have heard from a well placed source that the CCTV footage has been sent to a Mrs Sue Gray and a report on the matter is imminent .
I’ve heard within the last few minutes that the dignified and dedicated followers of fascism were at it again last night.
Now, I have to be honest here and say, when the TV commentator said that the Sevco fans were in the top tier of a stand, my initial reaction was, ” What the FUCK are they thinking of!!”.
But then I realised, as Phil said, from my one and only visit to Portugal I recalled, they are the kindest, most decent and hospitable people you could meet. They would automatically give their guests the best seats.
Their manners, hospitality and kindness were appreciated in true Klan fashion.