Boavista hope 'game of our lives' will take them into first final

The Boavista coach, Jaime Pacheco, has described tonight's Uefa Cup semi-final second leg against Celtic as the biggest game in the club's 100-year history.

The Portuguese, celebrating their centenary, are expecting to complete the job in the Bessa Stadium following their 1-1 draw with Martin O'Neill's men at Parkhead a fortnight ago.

Pacheco admits his players have been concentrating on winning the competition rather than the domestic championship because of the importance of the game.

"We have never been in the final of a European tournament," he said. "It is the most important game for the club and possibly the game of our lives.

"I was a player too and when we finished the season we would talk about the most important events we were in during the season and this season is the same. The players think that the Uefa Cup is more important than the championship.

"The medical team give me a report and it is clean at the moment, but if we were playing other games some of the players would say they were injured."

Pacheco is not happy with the appointment of the referee Valentin Ivanov for tomorrow's match and joked that he was looking forward to seeing him again. The Russian angered Boavista after he ruled out a goal against Auxerre in a Champions' League qualifier which the French side won 1-0 on aggregate.

"The referee made some mistakes in that game," said Pacheco. "I am looking forward to seeing him not make the same mistakes again."

The Boavista coach believes the game is still closely balanced. "Both teams have the same chance, but I hope that we can have the same luck again and we can win."

Celtic have suffered a slump in domestic form since their win at Liverpool in the last round, but Pacheco is not taking any encouragement from that.

"Their form back home will have no bearing on tomorrow night," he insisted. "They are still a good team and have proved it this season away from home in Europe."

It is a possibility, of course, the tie could be decided on penalties, but, interestingly, Pacheco claims it is bad luck to practise them before the match.

"We haven't taken penalties this week," he revealed. "When we take penalties before the game we miss them in the game.

"We didn't take them before the Malaga game and we won and we haven't this time. We will still be confident if it comes down to that."

Pacheco will give Martelinho a fitness test today, but he is without the suspended Paulo Turra and injured duo Nuno Frechaut and Jorge Silva.