Dundalk proved that the heroics of the previous year in Parkhead was no fluke with a tremendous display against FC Porto. As with nearly every away tie that the club have played in Europe nobody gave Dundalk much chance to even have the tie within reach for the second leg.
Dundalk set out to defend right from the beginning. After a hectic opening 15 minutes Porto scored through Sousa and Dundalk fans feared that several more would go past Rithie Blackmore. A few moments later Blackmore was penalised after challenging a Porto forward and the referee gave a harsh penalty. Blackmore gave his answer by diving full stretch to make a spectacular save.
The second half was more of the same but the Dundalk defence coped better as the game went on and even had a few chances themselves.
The team that night was:
Blackmore, McConville, Keely, Dunning, Lawlor, O’Doherty, McKenna, Flanagan, Clarke, Fairclough, Archibold.
Sub: Sean Byrne for Archibold
2nd Leg
FC Porto had to fight tooth and nail to escape Oriel Park with their narrow first leg lead still intact. Dundalk’s passionate and skillful performance scared the life out of the Portuguese. Both sides were cautious in the first half with FC Porto in particlar copying Dundalk’s defensive tactics of the first leg. Dundalk went close on 27 minutes when Flanagan sent Archibold away with a defence splitting pass. Archibold sent over a fine cross and Fairclough just failed to connect with a diving header. Three minutes later Blackmore made a good save to deny Albertino’s shot.
The story of the 2nd half was one of continuous Dundalk pressure which with a display that would have buried most teams. In the early stages Brian Duff and Fairclough both had efforts charged down from close range. Duff went the closest to breaking the deadlock when he hit the Porto crossbar and then he saw another shot fumbled by the Porto keeper only to see him recover in the nick of time. John Archibold was terrorising the Porto defence and also came close when he shot wide from 12 yards.
Dundalk just could not get the breakthrough and to a mixture of pride and disappointment were eliminated from the UEFA Cup.
The team that night was:
Blackmore, McConville, Keely, Dunning, Lawlor, O’Doherty, Clarke, McKenna, Fairclough, Flanagan, Archibold.
Subs: Sean Byrne and Brian Duff
