Vitória SC: Let's Get to Know Our Next Opponent

After successfully overcoming the challenges posed by NK Bravo Ljubljana from Slovenia and PFK Botev Plovdiv from Bulgaria, our new European opponent comes from Portugal.

Vitória SC is the name of the club standing in our way to another appearance in the group stage of the UEFA Conference League. This club finished fifth in the Portuguese league last season. Like Zrinjski, they reached the play-off by eliminating two opponents—first the Maltese team Floriana (1:0, 4:0), and then the Swiss team Zürich (3:0, 2:0).

This will be our second trip to Portugal in history, with the only previous one taking place 16 years ago when we faced Braga in the second round of the UEFA Cup qualifiers (0:1, 0:2).

The first match is scheduled for Wednesday, August 21, at 18:45 (17:45 local time) at the Dom Afonso Henriques stadium, while the return leg is set for August 29 in Mostar.

Full name Vitória Sport Clube, the club is much better known in the football world as Vitória de Guimarães, as the name immediately reveals that it is a club from the northern Portuguese city, located just about twenty kilometers from Braga, where we played our only European match on Portuguese soil in 2008.

Vitória SC was founded in 1922 and has spent the most seasons in the top tier of Portuguese football, trailing only behind the three major clubs—Benfica, Sporting, and Porto.

Given the significant dominance of Benfica, Sporting, and Porto, who have only relinquished two league titles throughout history, it’s no surprise that Vitória has not won many trophies. They have reached the Portuguese Cup final seven times but only claimed victory once, in 2013. Additionally, they have one Super Cup title from 1988.

On the international stage, their most significant achievement to date is reaching the quarterfinals of the UEFA Cup in 1988, where they were stopped by Borussia Mönchengladbach. In more recent history, they have qualified for the group stage of a UEFA competition twice, the most recent being in the 2019/2020 season.

Vitória de Guimarães plays its home matches at the D. Afonso Henriques Stadium. It was built in 1965, renovated ahead of the 2004 European Championship, and has a capacity of 30,000 spectators.

Guimarães is one of the few cities in Portugal where the locals don’t support Benfica, Porto, or Sporting. For the residents of this city, there is only Vitória, a fact best demonstrated by the data that the D. Afonso Henriques Stadium is the most attended in Portugal after those of Os Três Grandes. Additionally, Vitória has the largest number of members after Benfica, Sporting, and Porto.

Naturally, their biggest rival is SC Braga, as this is a local derby known as “O Dérbi do Minho.” Minho, incidentally, is a historical Portuguese province.

In the past two seasons, Vitória was eliminated from European competitions by clubs from Croatia and Slovenia—first by Hajduk in 2022 during the third qualifying round for the UEFA Conference League (1:0, 1:3), and then by Celje after a penalty shootout in the second qualifying round (4:3, 0:1) of the same competition.