Futebol Clube do Porto vs CD Nacional Portuguese League--8th Round Estádio do Dragão Sunday, October 23, 2011 18:15 So another important match tomorrow, as fans are upset about Porto's draw with APOEL in the CL. Nacional aren't off to a good start in the league--13th place after 7 rounds--but have played well at Porto in recent years and will have nothing to lose. Players Called: GK: Helton & Bracali DF: Sapunaru, Rolando, Otamendi, Mangala & Alvaro Pereira MF: Fernando, Belluschi, Guarin, Defour & Moutinho FW: Hulk, Djalma, Walter, Kleber, Varela & James Rodriguez Injured: Fucile, Iturbe & Rafa Technical Decision: Maicon, Souza, Alex Sandro & Cristian Rodriguez
Hopefully we'll see more movement in our midfield today. We need a good exhibition to get us rolling. I'll take the points, though.
Belluschi is looking good so far, nice to see. Hulk keeps getting fouled and not getting the calls...
Defour! Long range shot, deflected into the goal. Right when we were starting to struggle to create anything...
About as soft a 5-0 victory as you'll see. Our first three goals were a deflection, an non-call offsides, and a rebound. We really couldn't develop any cohesion or flow to our attack. We kept trying these overly optimistic mid to long range through balls to Hulk and Varela, and Nacional kept gobbling them up. Walter's unwillingness or inability to hold the ball forced everyone else to work harder (including overly relying on an isolated Hulk or Varela on the wings). Sapu seemed out of position quite a bit. I thought Alvaro was poor in the first half. A better team would have taken advantage of our instability in the back. Helton, too, felt a little too adventurous with the ball at his feet. On the bright side, I like Defour's effort, vision, and passing skill, and Mangala has serious potential, but he has to learn not to get so fancy handling the ball at the back (one back heel went straight to a Nacional player). Our passing was crisper when Moutinho came on late, but at that point, the result was well in hand anyway. Other interesting notes: Belluschi totally ignored Vitor Pereira's congratulations when he came off. The refs were pretty bad. The main official refused to give anyone a card, even though one was merited on a few occasions. There were also a couple bad offside calls. Hopefully the victory helps builds confidence going forward.
A very good recap PdCisGoD. Regarding Belluschi, it just confirms that there are problems in the boot room.
Excellent recap. Mangala didn't convince me, though. I also thought we played a more traditional 4-3-3, with the space between Walter and the wingers being wide. Much less of the short passing style that we often saw last year. Belluschi also played deeper than Defour, which was unexpected to me. He did a good job in the beginning but then did his usual disappearing act. He's been disappointing since mid way of last year IMO. Guarin is a shadow of himself, so is Varela. All in all, the team is not clicking. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't see this strategy of changing half of the starting team being the best way to address that. I'm very curious to see the starting XI for the next game.
nacional was a disgrace, not a surprise since Rui Alves is like another one of PDC's henchmen in the web of corruption that is Portuguese football. then again FC Porto with some help from the refs and some lucky goals, didnt play well at all but a win is a win and thats all that matters for Porto fans who already proven yet again they are little more than huge bangwagoners by the low attendance in this match.