The night Nacional da Madeira humbled all-conquering Porto in their own back yard | OneFootball

If you have just won everything there is to win, how can you cope with losing a home match against a side that only recently had been promoted to the top tier? FC Porto supporters didn’t even know what to feel when they left the soulless in the stands of the Dragão stadium on the night of 11 March 2005.

The season had been an emotional rollercoaster, there was no denying it, and yet they had just been humbled by a side like Nacional da Madeira only a year after having beaten the likes of Manchester United and Olympique Lyon at that same ground before travelling to Gelsenkirchen to claim the Champions League. It was all too much.

What hurt the most is that looking back, they now know that it was that defeat in particular that eventually cost them the league and the possibility of winning an unprecedented seven Portuguese titles in a row. When filing out of the stadium and heading back home nobody would dream that they had just witnessed one of the most decisive moments in the club’s history.

Mourinho’s winning machine

FC Porto ended the 2003/04 season on top of the world.

José Mourinho’s men claimed back-to-back league triumphs but, most importantly, they broke the unwritten law that no side outside of the big five leagues could win the Champions League by clinching the trophy in the final against Monaco. The previous season they had won the UEFA Cup in a thrilling match against Celtic in Seville so few imagined that their age of dominance was about to be halted.

Of course, Mourinho had departed and with him some key players such as Ricardo Carvalho, Paulo Ferreira, Pedro Mendes, Dimitri Alenitchev and, above all, Deco. But money was poured into the club’s coffers by the likes of Chelsea and Barcelona, not to mention UEFA prize money, and Porto were quick to move in the transfer market. Ricardo Quaresma was included in the deal that took Deco to the Camp Nou while from Brazil came two of the nation’s hottest prospects, midfielder Diego Ribas and forward Luís Fabiano, who would join the likes of Derlei, Carlos Alberto, Maniche, Costinha and Benny McCarthy as the club targeted a third consecutive league title and aimed to surprise Europe once again.

Too big an act to follow as two coaches quickly bite the dust

To follow up on Mourinho’s heavy legacy, Pinto da Costa made a surprise move, even by his own standards, by picking up the Italian manager Luigi del Neri, who had guided the relatively unknown Chievo Verano to their best seasons yet. Del Neri brought with him tactical and managerial concepts popular in Italy but which didn’t sit well with the Portuguese football culture and the huge weight of back-room leaders like Vitor Baía, Jorge Costa and Costinha made his tenure impossible. He was out even before the season had kicked off.

Then the Porto chairman signed the manager he had wanted in the first place. Víctor Fernández had become a sort of darling of Spanish football during the 1990s. Both his Real Zaragoza and Celta Vigo sides were not only successful on the pitch, but they were also considered two of the most attractive offensive sides in European football. Fernández had expected to be appointed national manager by the Spanish federation after their disastrous performance at Euro 2004 but they went with the veteran Luis Aragonés instead. Pinto da Costa had approached him as soon as we knew Mourinho was out, but the dream of guiding his nation to their first-ever win since 1964 had been too much and Fernández declined.

“Take this Dragon to intensive care urgently” was the headline of A Bola’s match report

Eventually, Spain started their period of international dominance under Aragonés playing a similar style to what Fernández would have opted for but when the former Atlético Madrid manager was announced, the Zaragoza native became available once again and was quick to jump ship. Things didn’t start well as Porto were beaten by Valencia in the European Super Cup – the only title they didn’t win during that period – but a single Quaresma goal had them beat Benfica for the Portuguese Super Cup and they were still widely seen as favourites to win the league.

It didn’t happen for them. A poor display in the Champions League group stage, with a ticket to the knockouts only sealed with a surprise late win against Mourinho’s Chelsea, and several points dropped both home and away were enough for Pinto da Costa to sack the Spaniard. Not even winning the club their second Intercontinental Cup, after penalty shoot-out drama with Colombian outfit Once Caldas, sufficed.

Clicking under Couceiro

Around the same time, international star players like Maniche and Costinha as well as the likes of Derlei, were pushing for a move to Russia where Dinamo Moscow were waving millionaire contracts, making life in the dressing room a living hell for every manager. Luis Fabiano’s father was kidnapped in Brazil and he wasn’t able to perform – later becoming a much-beloved figure in Sevilla’s two-time UEFA Cup winning side – and despite both Giovanni Trapattoni’s Benfica and José Peseiro’s Sporting proving to be as inconsistent as the Dragons, Fernández was out in winter as Pinto da Costa called José Couceiro to guide the club until the end of the season.

Few believed they had any chance of the title but then, out of the blue, the side clicked and benefited from surprise bad results from their two rivals. Suddenly it seemed that Porto might actually have a shot at keeping the crown in their hands. All that ended when Nacional da Madeira came to town.

Coups, control and castigation: the turbulent history of Madeiran football

The Madeira club was one of the three Funchal sides that had made a name for themselves on the island for decades. Football in Madeira suffered from isolation, both geographical as well as political. Despite having been one of the first places in Portugal where the game was played, due to the pioneering role of the British sailors that regularly anchored there, the difficulty in having to travel from the Iberian Peninsula to the middle of the Atlantic every other week made it hard for local clubs to thrive. Even so, Marítimo – Nacional’s biggest local rival – remarkably won the Campeonato de Portugal in the late 1920s.

Then an attempted military coup against António de Oliveira Salazar’s regime, the leaders of which took control of the island for weeks, condemned football in Madeira even more. When the army finally wrested control back into the hands of the fascist movement, not only the main leaders of the rebellion were killed or deported to Africa, but also their main institutions were deprived of any political or social relevance.

The regime then declared that their football clubs were vetoed to take part in the newly formed league championship, and to play in the Portuguese Cup they had first to arrange a tournament locally to select a representative who then had to travel to Lisbon to play their home matches there. That situation remained the same until the mid-1970s and caused football on the island to stagnate as they could not compete with anyone other than their own neighbours.

Nacional player ratings as per A Bola on a historical night for the Madeira club

Football on the up after post-revolution

After the April 1974 revolution things took a turn and the powerful influence of the regional government, led by Alberto João Jardim, used football as a tool to improve the image of the island both in Portugal and to the increasing tourist movement of mainly British and northern European holidaymakers who started to flock to southern Europe in search of sun and beaches, and who also took a liking to Madeira.

Thanks to that all three Funchal sides – Nacional, Marítimo and União – played first division football during the 1980s and all three were even in the top flight together in one season, making Funchal the second most-represented city in the league, behind Lisbon. Marítimo were the star turn and became a European regular in the 1990s while União’s golden period was short-lived. Nacional had its first good years in the late 1980s and then when they returned to the elite, in 2002.

Attack-minded Nacional

Coached by José Peseiro, they impressed with a free-flowing attacking formation that eventually bore fruit when they finished fifth the following season. Peseiro was rewarded with the Sporting job and the club hired the relatively unknown José Carlos Pereira to succeed him. Brazilian left-back Rossato was signed by Porto – although he didn’t enjoy a successful spell – but the club kept hold of striker Adriano and key players like Gouveia, Bruno, Fidalgo and Marcelo while Hilário, who had been Porto’s goalkeeper in the late 1990s and would later move to Mourinho’s Chelsea as Petr Cech’s understudy, was in goal.

“I always believed we could win, but never by such a big scoreline, which I think is an exaggeration” - Nacional coach José Carlos Pereira

Incapable of progressing in the UEFA Cup after facing Sevilla, the Funchal side were still considered one of the hot prospects in the league. Even so, few could imagine they could come out of the Dragão stadium with a win, let alone such a thunderous one.

Wintry night

It was cold and rainy as expected for a March night in Porto when both sides entered the pitch to a meagre attendance of only 30,000, way down on the numbers enjoyed the previous season under Mourinho, a reflection of how supporters had lost their belief in the side.

Couceiro, whose greatest feat had been to calm the waters after the turmoil of the late stages of Fernández at the helm, called upon his best available eleven, as expected. Vítor Baía was still the goalkeeper with Greek right-back Giourkas Seitaridis – signed before he became a European champion with Greece – alongside captain Jorge Costa, Ricardo Costa and Nuno Valente, playing in the back four. Costinha operated in a holding midfielder position alongside Ibson and Leandro, two Brazilian signings, in support of Diego, Quaresma and Fabiano.

Pereira on the other hand could call upon Hilário, Emerson, Ávalos, João Fidalgo, Alonso, Cléber Monteiro and Marcelo in support of Bruno, Gouveia, Miguel Fidalgo and Adriano to counter the home side. The coach knew that if his side could strike first, they could benefit from Porto’s recent emotional rollercoasters. That was exactly what they did.

Nacional take early lead

In the fourth minute, while some supporters were still finding their seats, Miguel Fidalgo opened the scoring. A corner was poorly cleared by the Porto defence, the ball ending up again at Bruno’s feet and as he crossed into the box Fidalgo was quick to break the offside line and score with ease. Porto protested offside, but the goal stood.

The Madeira side then composed themselves and negated all the home side’s attempts to draw level and as time went by became more dangerous on the counter. On the hour mark, Nacional scored the second of the night. Gouveia was dispossessed after a quick counter and the ball fell to the feet of left-back Alonso and he simply kept on running until finding himself in front of Baía. He hammered his shot past the former international, bulging the net.

History is made at the Dragão - A Bola

Result takes on scandalous proportions

Couceiro went into full-attack mode, taking Costinha off to add Leo Lima to the attacking line but that only made Nacional more comfortable and nine minutes later, substitute Viveiros scored the third, after more poor defending from both Seitaridis and Baía.

As many Porto supporters started to leave the ground in dismay, Nacional scored the fourth and final goal of the night with a brilliantly taken free-kick by Bruno, who had previously played for Porto after six stellar seasons with Marítimo in the 1990s. As the ball curled over the wall everyone in the stands knew what would happen next. Few players were as renowned free-kick takers in Portugal as the midfielder.

Costly defeat

There were still several matches until the season reached its end but the reigning champions’ fanbase threw in the towel, despite being just three points behind of the league leaders, Benfica. Had they won that night, Porto would have finished the 26th round of matches at the top of the table.

Porto player ratings as per A Bola

So, when the final fixture finally arrived, despite the pessimism after the Nacional calamity, FC Porto still found themselves in the running. They needed Benfica to draw at Boavista and win their home game against Vitória. In the end, the Eagles did win at the Bessa stadium and Couceiro’s men weren’t even able to beat the Guimarães side, but since Sporting lost their last match as well, they finished second, thus qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

Three points separated the Dragons from a third consecutive league title. Three points that were lost on a cold March night against Nacional. Porto went on the following season to claim the league under Co Adriaanse and then three more with Jesualdo Ferreira at the helm. Had they won the 2004/05 league, as they could have done if not for that home defeat against the Funchal side, they could have won seven league titles in a row. Of course, that’s fantasy football but never had a single side seemed so dominant in the history of the league for such a long stretch – bar just one season. A campaign the fate of which had been decided by a rampant Nacional that night.