Spain's Villarreal is looking to thwart the Europa League trophy ambitions of three Portuguese clubs as four Iberian teams line up in the semifinals on Thursday.
At least one club from Portugal will make it to the final in Dublin next month as Benfica meets domestic rival Braga in one semifinal. Villarreal travels to Portuguese champion FC Porto in the other first-leg encounter.
Porto is the more fancied Portuguese candidate after chalking up a 27-game unbeaten streak in the domestic championship and winning 12 of its 14 games in Europe this season.
But Villarreal, which reached the UEFA Cup semifinals in 2004 and two years later featured in the final four of the Champions League, should provide Porto's toughest test yet.
''Two attacking teams like us make the tournament more appealing,'' Porto coach Andre Villas-Boas said Wednesday. ''We both play attractive football. We know it's going to be extremely difficult.''
Porto's impressive form has drawn wide praise for the 33-year-old Villas-Boas in his breakout season after serving as Jose Mourinho's assistant at Porto, Chelsea and Inter Milan. While at Porto, Mourinho snared the UEFA Cup in 2003 and the Champions League title the following year.
Villas-Boas secured the northern Portuguese club's 25th domestic title earlier this month with five rounds left to play. Porto has also posted a Portuguese record number of wins in Europe in one season.
Porto has profited from a formidable attack including Colombian Radamel Falcao, the Europa League's top scorer with 11 goals, and Brazilian striker Hulk, the top domestic league scorer with 22 strikes.
Villarreal is also likely to face Falcao's international teammate Freddy Guarin and Portugal forward Silvestre Varela.
But Villareal has on-form Italy striker Giuseppe Rossi who has 30 goals on the season and has netted one fewer than Falcao in Europe.
Villarreal defender Mateo Musacchio knows Falcao well as the pair played together in River Plate's youth ranks.
''He's a complete striker, he heads the ball well and has a great finishing touch. Both teams have very good strikers so both teams will have to be alert in defense,'' he said.
Villarreal is fourth in La Liga but is without captain and center back Gonzalo Rodriguez, who has a broken ankle, and injured midfielders Angel Lopez and Marcos Senna.
Benfica is hoping its international pedigree will help it overpower unheralded Braga, though its European glory days are a distant memory - it lifted its last continental trophy 49 years ago when it was back-to-back European champion.
Benfica trails Porto by 19 points in the Portuguese league and is far from the form that secured the title last season. It has since sold Angel Di Maria to Real Madrid and Ramires and David Luiz to Chelsea.
Midfielder Carlos Martins is in doubt with a thigh strain, but a bigger worry is the weak form of center forward Oscar Cardozo who hasn't scored in open play for almost two months.
''Benfica is still a great team,'' Braga midfielder Hugo Viana said. ''This will be a different game because it's European, but we'll have to keep up our recent good work.''
Braga is third in the Portuguese league, 14 points behind Benfica, and has won just one of 59 visits to the Stadium of Light.
It has never come this far in a European competition, but it is on a 12-match unbeaten run and has already eliminated Liverpool, Seville and Celtic.
Brazilian striker Paulo Cesar is suspended after being sent off against Dynamo Kiev in the quarterfinals.
