S.C.U Torreense will play the first European home match in their history on Thursday when they host Sunderland in the Europa League, a fixture that will be staged almost 47 miles from their own ground.
The Portuguese second-tier club, based 35 miles north of Lisbon, are competing in Europe after one of the most improbable results in modern Portuguese football: a 2-1 victory over Sporting in the Taca de Portugal final in May. Torreense captain Stopira, a Cape Verde international, scored a penalty in extra time to seal the win.
It was the first time a second-division side had won the Portuguese Cup since the competition took its current form in 1938. “You can imagine when they could defeat a giant club like Sporting in the final, it was quite a surprise and for the city, it’s something very, very special,” Portuguese football journalist and former Benfica goalkeeper Jose Delgado said.
Torreense are not the first club from outside the top flight to appear in European competition — Beira-Mar played in the 1999-2000 Uefa Cup — but they were a top-flight team at the time of qualifying. Torreense, by contrast, earned their place by lifting the cup.
The club has already made its European debut, travelling to Norwegian side Lillestrom and winning. That result left them with three points and, for some observers, already ahead of schedule. “I thought that Torreense could go through the Europa League with no points,” Delgado said. “The truth is that they already have three points and that is something.”
The league phase does not get easier. Before the end of January, Torreense also face Ferencvaros, Ararat-Armenia, Celtic, Real Sociedad, Lech Poznan and Olympiacos. “It is something extraordinary for Torreense. These are clubs with huge histories, strong identities and enormous European experience,” said Andre Sabino, the club’s director of football and chief executive. “To be able to share the same competition and compete against them is a privilege. But we don’t want to simply participate. We want to compete.”
Torreense are managed by Luis Tralhao, whose brother Joao is currently serving as an assistant to Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid.
Thursday’s match will not take place at the Estadio Manuel Marques. The club’s 2,431-capacity home does not meet Uefa’s stadium criteria — its capacity is smaller than that of 45 of the 48 clubs in England’s sixth tier — so the Sunderland fixture has been moved to the Municipal Stadium in Leiria. For a club whose supporters face a 150km round trip to watch a “home” game, it is an awkward compromise. “Obviously, it is not ideal,” Sabino said. “Playing at home should mean playing in your own stadium, in front of your own supporters and in the environment that represents your club. But at the same time, we understand the logistical and regulatory requirements involved in European competition.”
Sabino said the club would try to make the temporary venue feel familiar. “We hope to see Leiria filled with Torreense colours and feel that support from the first minute,” he said.
Qualification for the Europa League league phase guarantees Torreense a financial injection of at least 5m euros (£4.2m), with every positive result and additional round adding to that pot. The win over Lillestrom alone was worth 630,000 euros (£533,000).
“For a club like Torreense, it is a very significant amount,” Sabino said. “It gives us an opportunity to strengthen the club in several areas and to accelerate projects that otherwise would naturally take much longer. However, we have to be very responsible. Our objective is not simply to spend more because we have more resources. We want to invest intelligently, strengthen the structure of the club and create conditions for sustainable growth.”
The squad has been rebuilt quickly. Torreense have made 19 new signings drawn from 10 different countries, including France, Greece, Spain, Serbia, Portugal, Brazil, Denmark, Morocco and Germany, with five recruits arriving from Portugal’s top flight. Most came from outside those countries’ leading divisions. Of the 32-man senior squad, only four players are Portuguese.
“It has been a very different challenge,” Sabino said. “European football changes the perception of the club and naturally makes Torreense more attractive to certain players, but it also increases expectations.”
Domestically, the picture is mixed. Last season Torreense missed out on automatic promotion on goal difference before losing a promotion/relegation play-off to Casa Pia 2-0 on aggregate in May, denying them a return to the Portuguese top division for the first time since 1991-92. This term they have won only one of their opening seven league games. Their league fixtures include meetings with the ‘B’ teams of Sporting, Benfica and Porto.
With the overwhelming majority of supporters in Portugal following one of the ‘big three’ of Porto, Benfica and Sporting, Delgado believes the European run will not transform Torreense’s following overnight, though it may change how others see them. “Right now I think that there is a great sympathy about Torreense, but I don’t think they will get many more fans because of this presence,” he said. “Maybe this presence will make some investors look at them in a different way and put some money in the club.”
For Delgado, the club’s run carries wider significance in a country whose league sits outside Uefa’s top five, where every representative in the Champions League, Europa League or Conference League has a role in earning ranking points. “It’s something that I don’t think will ever happen again in Portuguese football,” he said. “But Torreense has this.”