"It's fundamental to know how to play finals and play in the Portuguese Cup. It's something different. I was lucky enough to win two, but the experience was different in the second year and that knowledge was a fundamental factor. Sporting has this situation of wanting to do the 'double' and FC Porto doesn't want to end the season without trophies. That also matters and, from what I already know about that club at the moment, there is an extra desire to always want more", the former Angolan midfielder for the 'dragons', between 1998 and 2001, told the Lusa agency.

FC Porto, the second most titled club, with 19 trophies, seven below the record holder Benfica, and Sporting, third, with 17, will face each other on Sunday, starting at 5:15 pm, at the Estádio Nacional, in Oeiras, in the final of the 84th edition of the second most important competition in national football, which will be refereed by Fábio Veríssimo, from the Leiria association.

"The cups have always been intense in recent years. It will be a great game between two teams that respect each other and are intense. In terms of expectations, I think that at the moment it is 50/50 and I don't put anyone ahead. As a rule, the team that is more inspired and has more desire will win. The teams know each other and fit in well, because they have already played so many games against each other. What makes the difference is creativity", he said.

FC Porto and Sporting have already crossed paths 13 times in the last four years under the command of Sérgio Conceição and Rúben Amorim, respectively, with Chaínho expecting the same patterns of the recent past, despite the common strategic changes of the 'dragons'.

"What will make the difference within each model are the players, because they completely change the way they play. Despite knowing the systems, it is enough for one athlete to be more offensive and another to close more or less to change this dynamic. In both teams there are those who will play their first final, but I don't see any surprises. It will be the details that will define: how to block Viktor Gyökeres in that space he likes the most, knowing how to stop Mehdi Taremi in those diagonals or limiting Pepê in the central zone", he said.

Winner of two Portuguese Cups, in 1999/00 and 2000/01 - the first through a final against the then recently crowned national champion Sporting (2-0), after a draw in the first game (1-1, after extra time), the former midfielder trusts that the third-placed team in the 2023/24 edition of the I Liga will recover the habit of transcending itself in 'big' games.

"What is typical of FC Porto is to always turn things around in difficult moments. We saw this in the Champions League and in the last games of the second round of the championship. Being a final, you either cry or laugh. Obviously, they will try to win the trophy, because this is an all-or-nothing game and the last of president Pinto da Costa [at the head of SAD]. They will want to end well, but I believe that the desire to want more from Sérgio Conceição himself, who we know is a coach who pulls, will be fundamental", he said.

The classic will mark the farewell of Pinto da Costa from FC Porto's SAD, which he has led since 1997, the year of the creation of this company responsible for the management of professional 'blue and white' football, which will be taken over on Tuesday by the former coach André Villas-Boas, a month after breaking a series of 42 years and 15 mandates of the oldest and most titled manager in world football, by winning the club's elections.

"It was much more complicated in that pre-election phase. Then, things changed. At this moment, I don't believe that there is such pressure. Things are concrete and already outlined. There is a new era and, above all, we must finish the season well", he appealed.