Sporting Braga and Real Betis have never met previously in any European competition – the Portuguese side have lost all three major European competition games against Spanish teams, a 2-0 defeat to Sevilla in the UEFA Cup in 2006-07 and two defeats to Real Madrid in the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League (1-2 and 0-3).
Real Betis’ four games against Portuguese opposition this century have all been against Vitória Guimarães, winning both games in the 2013-14 UEFA Europa League and winning one and drawing one in 2024-25 in the Conference League.
Sporting Braga are into only their fourth ever major European quarter-final, with each of the previous three coming in the UEFA Europa League. They qualified on away goals in 2010-11 against Dynamo Kyiv but were eliminated in 2015-16 and 2021-22 against Shakhtar Donetsk and Rangers respectively.
Real Betis are into a major European quarter-final for a second successive season, eliminating Polish side Jagiellonia Bialystok 3-1 on aggregate last season in the Conference League. Their only two other quarter-finals came in the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1977-78 (lost 3-0 on aggregate to Dinamo Moscow) and 1997-98 (lost 5-2 on aggregate to Chelsea).
Sporting Braga have kept seven clean sheets in the UEFA Europa League this season, the most of any side, with Man Utd in 2019-20 the last team to keep more in one season (8). Only Nottingham Forest (7.6) and Lyon (8.4) have faced fewer shots per game than Braga have this season (8.7).
Real Betis have lost the first leg of their last three UEFA Europa League knockout ties, including 1-0 against Panathinaikos in the last 16 this season before winning the second leg 4-0.
Lukás Hornícek has kept seven clean sheets for Sporting Braga in the UEFA Europa League this season – the only goalkeepers to keep more in a single campaign (since 2009-10) are Volkan Demirel for Fenerbahçe in 2012-13 (8) and Sergio Romero for Manchester United in 2016-17 (8).
Antony has scored five UEFA Europa League goals for Real Betis this season – in their major European history, the only player to score more goals in one season is Cédric Bakambu last season (7).