Birmingham V Braga - English thread

[jaimec]

Greeting from Braga to the Brummies visiting superbraga !
This thread is for you Blues from Birmingham to chat with the "Braguistas" ( S.C.Braga supporters ).
Let me first tell you that we aren't an arrogant bunch. We are football lovers, and we demand good football from our team, whatever the opponent is.
As I read in the portuguese thread about the game, the general feeling is we are mildly confident for this match and a draw is seen as a satisfactory result by our fans. One thing's for sure, we respect your team and consider them to be a worthy adversary.
But seriously, and please don't be insulted, we never won in England and I think this could be it, if we are at our best .

p.s. - You'll have to sign in @superbraga.com so you can chat.

http://www.superbraga.com/welcome/

[bluenose]

Just thought I'd say hello from Birmingham.    And best wishes for tomorrow's game.  Braga will top the group easily, so if you beat everyone else we might have a chance of getting through in 2nd place!

Although that would be a miracle.  Right now we are 19th in the Second Division...then again, I think we all knew this would be a very difficult season for us.  Our entire squad cost about £12m in transfer fees.  Which sounds a lot - but £6m of that was on Nikola Zigic.  However he is now fit, so perhaps we can rise up the table.

The most impressive thing from Braga was how hard your players worked.  We all expected the skill, but the pressing was not something we thought would happen.  We could not find free players; every time we had the ball, everyone was marked very quickly.  Which meant we panicked.  Braga always seemed to have time on the ball, and of course the goals all came from explosive passing movements.  Indeed Braga had very few chances; you didn't need them.

I am hoping to get to the second leg, it depends on ticket allocation (I am a season ticket holder, but those fans with away season tickets get first choice - there are about 3,000 of those), as it is the one chance in my life to see Blues in Europe.  The last time we were in Europe was in 1961, and we didn't qualify, we were invited...

So best wishes for tomorrow and here's a quick pic of St Andrews before the match:

[Pé Ligeiro]

Just thought I'd say hello from Birmingham.    And best wishes for tomorrow's game.  Braga will top the group easily, so if you beat everyone else we might have a chance of getting through in 2nd place!

Although that would be a miracle.  Right now we are 19th in the Second Division...then again, I think we all knew this would be a very difficult season for us.  Our entire squad cost about £12m in transfer fees.  Which sounds a lot - but £6m of that was on Nikola Zigic.  However he is now fit, so perhaps we can rise up the table.

The most impressive thing from Braga was how hard your players worked.  We all expected the skill, but the pressing was not something we thought would happen.  We could not find free players; every time we had the ball, everyone was marked very quickly.  Which meant we panicked.  Braga always seemed to have time on the ball, and of course the goals all came from explosive passing movements.  Indeed Braga had very few chances; you didn't need them.

I am hoping to get to the second leg, it depends on ticket allocation (I am a season ticket holder, but those fans with away season tickets get first choice - there are about 3,000 of those), as it is the one chance in my life to see Blues in Europe.  The last time we were in Europe was in 1961, and we didn't qualify, we were invited...

So best wishes for tomorrow and here's a quick pic of St Andrews before the match:

Thank you for the best wishes.
I hope your team  can rise up the table very soon in the Championship.

[PEDRØ XVI]

Just thought I'd say hello from Birmingham.    And best wishes for tomorrow's game.  Braga will top the group easily, so if you beat everyone else we might have a chance of getting through in 2nd place!

Although that would be a miracle.  Right now we are 19th in the Second Division...then again, I think we all knew this would be a very difficult season for us.  Our entire squad cost about £12m in transfer fees.  Which sounds a lot - but £6m of that was on Nikola Zigic.  However he is now fit, so perhaps we can rise up the table.

The most impressive thing from Braga was how hard your players worked.  We all expected the skill, but the pressing was not something we thought would happen.  We could not find free players; every time we had the ball, everyone was marked very quickly.  Which meant we panicked.  Braga always seemed to have time on the ball, and of course the goals all came from explosive passing movements.  Indeed Braga had very few chances; you didn't need them.

I am hoping to get to the second leg, it depends on ticket allocation (I am a season ticket holder, but those fans with away season tickets get first choice - there are about 3,000 of those), as it is the one chance in my life to see Blues in Europe.  The last time we were in Europe was in 1961, and we didn't qualify, we were invited...

So best wishes for tomorrow and here's a quick pic of St Andrews before the match:

i hope you guys can return to the premier league, i know the current position is not much promising but for what i saw from the game between our teams i you have enough quality, i mean if a team can play like you did against us (the vice-champion of europa league  ) every single game it will be enough to return where Birmingham belongs, the premier league!
best of wishes mate and good luck!
hope to see many of you here on the 2nd leg 

[bluenose]

I think there will be quite a lot coming.  Obviously everyone wants to go to the Brugge match; it's closer and cheaper, and of course the city is famous for beer.    I have booked a coach trip, hoping to get a ticket.  But the Braga game will be the last European game for many of us, probably ever...

We won on Sunday, our first away win of the season, at Nottingham Forest.  You see how bad things are for us - when a team loses to us, their manager AND chairman BOTH resign.   

[jaimec]

Hi bluenose, and thank you for joining in. As a braguista, let me congratulate you on your fair-play about your comments over the first leg ... we deserved to win that match although we had the right ammount of luck at the precise moments. And for us, that´s what it takes to win a match these days.
But that's the general feeling i have about my team, we play well but if we are a bit unlucky, we lose. Our inconsistency is our achiles heel and i feel we are alway walking the wire ... sometimes we succeed, but most of the time we tremble. Hence the falls ...
Sure we have 8 players down by injury, and we played valuable opponents, but in Braga, things are quite unrestfull nowadays. Snobby habbits if you ask me. Having reached Europa League final last season and having fought over the championship up until the very last match a couple of seasons ago, left a scar. These days, Braga supporters are so demandig that some (a very, very nervous bunch), have even demanded the coach be sacked for losing away at Porto and Sporting ... seems odd. But even a braguista that knows they are wrong, understands why they feel the way they do. The victory drug is extremmely addictive, isn´t it?
On Zigic ... we know that idiot (no ofense to your club, but never hire a serbian, he most likely will be a source for problems, not solutions) . He played here once for RSBelgrade(crazy mofos) and he, along with his teammates spreaded shitty behaviour, time wasting and nasty tackles the whole shamefull match. It was the most indecent lack of fair play ever ! I think he scored, if i remember correctly.
Heard there were 1700 of you coming to Braga. Safe journey to all, you'll be welcome here.

p.s. - We have beer. Great beer ! Uncomparably cheaper beer . Allright that Brugge is closer to you, but i did the math and, depending on you drinking skills, your trip here could be even cheaper ! 
Also, you still can wear a t-shirt outside and enjoy a superbock (king-beer) with the sun shining brightly ! Can you do that in Brugges? No chance.
Few portuguese do, but you can do it ! I know you can. I've seen it! 
And stay in Braga if you can . You'll be surprised ... in a good way.
Cheers mate.