This will be the Champions League group stage matchday 5 game against FC Porto at the Estádio do Dragão. Now we’re going to tell you about this stadium and give some advice for those, who want to support the White-Blues in Portugal.
Estádio do Dragão: key facts
The Estádio do Dragão project was developed by architect Manuel Salgado for Euro-2004. It is the second largest stadium in Portugal with the capacity of 50,948 seats (50,399 at international matches).
They invested 90 million euro into construction of the arena and on November 16 2003 52,399 spectators, who came to FC Porto friendly against FC Barcelona (2:0), witnessed the opening ceremony. By the way, that game was a debut of 16-year-old Lionel Messi.
In February of 2004 the stadium became the Dragons’ home arena instead of the Estádio das Antas, where on April 9 1987 FC Dynamo Kyiv lost against home side 2:1 within the Champions Cup semifinal first leg.
Practical suggestions
The Estádio do Dragão is located four km to the north-east from Porto historical center.
You can easily reach the arena by subway lines A (blue), B (red), E (purple) and F (orange).
Subway works from 6:00 till 01:30.
By the way, payment system in Porto public transport is quite complicated. Bus, tramcar and subway ticket price depends upon the number of transport zones. Transport system includes even Porto suburbs. One ticket can cost from 1.20 euro for a trip within one zone to 5 euro within all 11 zones. One can also purchase one day pass for 4.15 – 16.70 euro.
Our advice for Dynamo supporters is to buy Andante Tour card. It gives you unlimited number of trips by STCP company buses, subway, funicular and suburban trains. Andante Tour card can be of two types: for 24 hours – 7 euro and for 72 hours – 15 euro.
You can also purchase Porto Card that gives you unlimited number of trips by public transport and offers different discounts at museums, restaurants etc. There are several types of those cards: 1 day – 6 euro (not for public transport), 1 day (including public transport trips) – 13 euro, 2 days – 20 euro, 3 days – 25 euro.
Taxi
Taxi is a quite cheap way to move around Porto. Cars are equipped with counters. Green light means taxi is occupied. One pays 1.1 euro getting into the car and then – 0.05 euro for every 175 m (138 m at night).
If you want to travel outside the city it will cost you 1.8 euro/1 km. At night (22:00 – 6:00) and on weekends prices are 20% higher. Usually they give drivers about 10% tips. You can either “catch” taxi in a street or order a car, for example at Taxis Invicta company.
Funicular
There’s one funicular in Porto that connects two districts – Batalha and Ribeira. The funicular belongs to Transdev company.
One-way trip ticket costs 2 euro. You can use Andante card. Funicular operates from 8:00 till 20:00.
Food and drinks
The area around the Estádio do Dragão is a combination of offices and residential units. There’s big mall called Dolce Vita there with lots of restaurants and cafes.
You can also have lunch in the historical center of the city.
We hope this information will be useful for Dynamo fans in Porto. We are sure they’ll give our players support they need so much!
Oleh Zadernovskyi
Copyright © 2015 FC Dynamo Kyiv
