FC Porto 3-0 Sporting: Dragons nullify Sporting on Tello's night

FC Porto and Sporting entered this match with five points separating them and with both teams needing a win. On one hand, Benfica had effectively destroyed Estoril the day before and put a seven-point distance between themselves and the Dragons. On the other hand, Sporting were just one point ahead of Braga in the fight for the next season's last Champions League place. The promise of an entertaining match was made.

But the game played out somewhat differently from what might be expected. Having yet to lose against either FC Porto or Benfica this season, the Lions' coach Marco Silva chose not to replicate the successful strategy that had granted the Verde e Brancos an impressive 3-1 win at the Dragão for the Portuguese Cup last October.

• Sporting's compact back four

Sporting's more expectant approach was somewhat counterbalanced by the high positioning of their back line, playing 10-15 yards in front of their own penalty box, an approach complemented by the fact that all four elements in the Lions' defence were deployed very narrow - apparently in an attempt to stifle FC Porto's centre.

Sporting's plan seemed to be completed by a more expectant approach and a seeming over-reliance on FC Porto's tendency to make mistakes in possession, particularly through their centre-backs. The first two half-opportunities came from Sporting - and exactly through the expected fashion. After that, Sporting seemed to evaporate offensively as FC Porto started piling on the pressure.

• FC Porto's issues down the centre and ironic goal

Without Óliver Torres, the Dragons' coach Julen Lopetegui went with Evandro to take the Spanish wunderkid's place, meaning Herrera played closer to Casemiro than usual. The midfield match-up was almost man-to-man marking, with Herrera on William Carvalho, Evandro on Adrien and Casemiro on João Mário - and vice-versa, naturally.

The Dragons had some initial issues with the build-up play, as Brahimi looked like the team's only out-ball, with both Herrera and Evandro unwilling to get the ball from their centre-backs. On the defensive side of things, Herrera and Evandro were not looking too secure either, playing too far apart and thus forcing Casemiro to move out wide - which made it look like Sporting could create some danger down that route, particularly with Montero, João Mário and Nani all thriving in that space.

As Sporting progressively faded, FC Porto ended up scoring 31 minutes into the match with can only be described as the antithesis of their tactical blueprint: Maicon hit it long in the direction of Jackson Martínez, who, with a little flick, played Cristian Tello in for the Spanish's first goal of the evening. On English shores, this would be designated as typical route-one football.

• Sporting go missing, FC Porto at full throttle

Marco Silva's team seemed ill-prepared for the possibility of conceding a goal and apparently without a plan B. Things surely didn't look rosy as the Dragons kept attacking in waves and looked more purposeful on the ball. That much was further stressed as FC Porto came out stronger out of the gates for the second half and Tello benefited from another lovely assist from Jackson Martínez, with Sporting left-back punished for his terrible positioning and reading of the game.

Silva reacted immediately with Slimani and Capel coming on for Montero and Carrillo (meaning Nani acted as no. 10 and João Mário alongside William Carvalho), but nothing came of it. In fact, it was FC Porto that kept coming at the vulnerable lions, with Jackson now finding pockets of space between the opposing centre-backs but also between the centre-halves and the full-backs. With Sporting a tad more proactive and more balanced up front, the Dragons' midfield found the space they had been craving for some probing passes behind the Lions' back four.

Tello would round up his evening with a hat-trick after Herrera followed in Jackson Martínez's footsteps and provided a direct through-ball that completed Jonathan's torment of a match. Iván Marcano would hit the woodwork with a powerful header in an attempt to increase the final scoreline, but it ended up unchanged up until the final whistle.

• Conclusion

An anaemic display from Sporting that cannot certainly be blamed exclusively on Thursday's Europa League match against Wolfsburg. Despite the difference as far as players are individually concerned, the team did not seem prepared to what FC Porto had to offer, the huge space behind the Lions' defence proving deadly for the team led by Marco Silva - and given the team played the whole time with such a high defence, it had be to under the coach's instructions.

FC Porto, on the other hand, ended up achieving a very good result and a decent cushion in order to guarantee direct access to next season's Champions League - and still be within touching distance of Benfica. Still, there remain some issues that look hard to get rid of, namely the defence's shakiness when things are more tightly contested and the little protection provided by the midfield. Also, the fact that the team rely heavily on Brahimi to provide the out-ball should not be overlooked either, especially as the season enters its defining stages.

Wolfsburg 4-1 Bayern Munich: Wake-up call for Guardiola?

In what proved to be one of the season's shockers, Wolfsburg trounced current (and most likely 2015's eventual) German champions Bayen Munich 4-1 in the Bundesliga's return to action after the winter break. Given that, more than the unbalanced result, Wolfsburg put in such an impressive display against one of Europe's toughest sides and that the Champions League will soon be upon us, there are some notes to take from this contest.

• Bayern unashamed to go long

One of the most interesting aspects of last night's match was how much Pep Guardiola's centre-backs (in this case, Dante and Jerome Boateng) were willing to hit long diagonal balls up front from the same part of the pitch. This looked like a very deliberate strategy, with Robert Lewandowski coming short to drag opponents out and one of the midfielders (Bastian Schweinsteiger or David Alaba, in the first half) trying to exploit the space behind the Polish striker.

Given that Bayern lacked quick runs from behind from either Arjen Robben or Thomas Müller, for instance, Guardiola seems to have taken the competition-free weeks to work on a more varied approach, perhaps divining the succession of compact, deep-lying teams that side is about to face. In fact, it was impossible not to notice how hard Bayern found to penetrate through their opponents' centre.

• A spanner in the works

Another interesting aspect of Wolfsburg's display was how they managed to rattle the usually metronomic Xabi Alonso, a key cog in the Bavarians' typically well oiled gear. Coach Dieter Hecking was smart in instruction one of Bas Dost or former Chelsea man Kevin De Bruyne to sit on Xabi Alonso to stop him from collecting and distributing passes easily. His chalkboard shows how the Spaniard struggled at finding his team-mates with positive passes, but the fact that he was caught in possession several times is even more revealing.


Bayern's defence in need of a tune-up

There is one feature of Guardiola's teams that gets often overlooked, which is the transition into defence. The former Barcelona great tends to instill great urgency for the moment the ball is given away, frequently leading to the ball being won back very few seconds after it was lost. Here Bayern were not as proactive and their players were indeed often far from each other to assemble the usual net that stifles the opposition. That, coupled with the midfielders' reluctance (or unwillingness) to return, meant that Bayern defenders were often late and/or isolated in 1v1 situations, resulting in a small number of interceptions and a appalling tackle ratio.

Dante and Boateng, in particular, had a torrid time last night and did not offer much in terms of stemming Wolsfburg's threat, which must be a worrying sign for Guardiola as the Champions League looms large on the horizon.

• A clear blueprint

Dieter Hecking showed that he was well aware of Bayern's vulnerabilities (even if last night's result should be taken with a pinch of salt). Wolfsburg were happy to cede possession to the German champions and hold tight at the back, but they seemed to know exactly how and where to hurt Bayern.

On one hand, Hecking's men were smart enough not to try to break Bayern down through the centre when they got the ball back, rather immediately attempting to stretch their opponents out wide and searching for the pockets of space either side of Xabi Alonso (and, most importantly, behind Schweinsteiger and Alaba). Only then, after receiving the ball out wide and progressing towards Bayern's centre-backs, did De Bruyne & co. try to penetrate down the middle, much to Dante and Boateng's chagrin.

De Bruyne, in particular, was tremendous by making himself available to constantly be the man on the run, whether it was in the centre or down the wings. his two goals perhaps showing just what an asset he could have been in José Mourinho's side. Catching Boateng and Dante high up the pitch, the Belgian made the most of his breaks and proved just how vulnerable tiki-taka-playing Bayern could be.

The Unsung Hero(es): The Holding Midfielder

Football is a game of light and shadow - a team attracting their opponents to one side of the pitch so they can then attack their blind side, the body swerve to get past your marker without even touching the ball, a side conceding the lion's share of possession so they can then pounce on their rivals' disorganised lines.

The human mind is much better equipped to notice and understand what happens, rather than what does not happen. Sir Alex Ferguson, for instance, chose to sell Jaap Stam because the statistics that he had at his disposal told him that the Dutch mainstay was not tackling as much. Only much later did it dawn on the Scot that Stam's positioning was improving in such a way that he didn't need to tackle as much.

In the world of the blinding lights provided by the stratospheric numbers of Cristiano Ronaldo or Lionel Messi, or the showstopping saves and long passes of Manuel Neuer, it is sometimes hard to discern what goes on behind the curtain. In other words, apart from club or personal preferences, what makes a full-back or a midfielder better or worse than their team-mates or competitors?

Case in point, Liverpool's fortunes changed for the better over the past few weeks, coinciding with holding midfielder Lucas Leiva's return to the fold. Was it a mere correlation or, on the contrary, cause and effect? The Brazilian, always so discreet and effective, can often fly by under most spectators' radar, but his two displays against Chelsea for the Capital One Cup are indeed on of the best records of just what the mission of a player in his position is.

In the video below, Lucas hardly ever seems to do anything of significance - but instead of searching for the light, try to imagine what would happen if he hadn't been around to stifle one threat here, to distribute the ball nicely there, or just taking up the space that would have allowed the opposing forward to thrive. By doing that, one might realise that some things will not remain unseen ever again.

Is the Premier League Falling Victim to Its Virtues?

Photo credits: dailymail.co.uk.
Crystal Palace's Ian Wright in the 1990 FA Cup final.

20 years ago English football was surrounded in a cloud of mystery as far as most people in Europe were concerned. Without today's uninterrupted flow of live streamed matches, football had to be witnessed live on most occasions - and following the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, English teams became even more alien to continental football lovers.

However, English football managed to retain its appeal. The tales of teams going at it no matter what the score was, packed up stadiums, matches played in broad daylight, fervent supporters that would never turn their backs on their team and brave supporting of managers through thick and thin kept paving the imaginary of the remaining Europeans, particularly the Southern for whom many of those concepts seemed to belong to a whole different universe, let alone sport.

The Premier League was finally introduced in 1992, coinciding almost to perfection with the return of English teams to European competition. The first (not always live) broadcasts of the FA Cup final, for instance, started to surface on continental TV sets and the enchantment would rapidly pick up steam. When England's top tier became a regular fixture in the schedules of most enthusiasts of the sport, it seemed too good to be true. No tale had been exaggerated. Everyone wanted to bear witness to those appealing matches.

Since then, the Premier League managed to grab the spotlight of European football and to bring the best players and managers to English shores, effectively ensuring English clubs remain some of the wealthiest in the world (suffice to say, for instance, that Roma's revenue is below West Ham's, as a term of comparison) However, that glitter has been fading away in recent years.

• The culture

In fact, over the past few years the marketeers in charge of branding the Premier League have been - ever so subtly - changing the competition's catchphrase from "The best league in the world" to "The most exciting league in the world", capturing a very delicate yet crucial nuance.

Not long after leaving Chelsea, André Villas-Boas (not exactly the most revered presence in English football) made an interesting point by admitting he had not entirely apprehended the nation's reality when he tried to change Chelsea's style from a reactive approach into a more proactive one. Ball retention and patient build-up were not only concepts hard to grasp by supporters, but by players as well.

Photo credits: independent.co.uk.
Roberto Martínez has made the headlines
with Swansea, West Brom and Everton.

The fact is that English football appears to be deeply rooted in broken up matches with extremely high levels of intensity - which for some reason does not lend itself to significant change. It is probably not entirely coincidental that most of the tectonic tactical shifts that have taken place over the past two decades have not hailed from Blighty, despite clubs like Swansea or coaches like Brendan Rogers and Roberto Martínez, both of whom managed the Welsh club.

The gutting duels between José Mourinho's Chelsea and Rafa Benítez's Liverpool from a decade ago were certainly fiercely contested, but they revealed a betrayal of sorts to English football's main tenets. Football is meant to be playing passionately and with your heart on your sleeve, not on tactical boards and in 0-0 matches. After Manchester United's defeat against Barcelona in Rome in 2009 (following which Sir Alex Ferguson admitted himself that he didn't feel like keeping on playing wary football), English football may have taken a step back.

• The insularity

Great Britain's isolation has simultaneously been one of the country's main trumps and flaws. In football, it has meant that, despite significant breakthroughs, the island's football still finds some common ground with the way it was played several decades ago (Sam Allardyce or Tony Pulis, for instance, keep on making excellent lemonades with some of those methods). England, in particular, has remained something of an oasis (poor pun intended) to the unsuspecting bystander who craves for scoreline uncertainty and intense matches.

Photo credits: telegraph.co.uk.
How long will it take to repeat Chelsea's
2012 Champions League success?

However, that very feature may very well be damaging English teams' prospects in Europe. Leaving the Europa League aside for a moment - since English teams usually consider it nothing but a Thursday night nuisance -, Chelsea's triumph in 2012 was something of an anomaly (not unlike Inter Milan's the year before), in a season that didn't end with the same manager that had started it. Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich have taken over Europe by storm and it appears hard to fathom them letting go in the near future.

The same insularity that allows Arsène Wenger to remain on his job has the effect of allowing to repeat the same mistakes season after season as Arsenal are usually eliminated in the first round after the group stage. Defensive organisation and transition seems to be an afterthought in so many managers of English teams, as if the successive attacking waves would somehow make up for the conceded goals.

Liverpool didn't even manage to pip Basel to qualification from their group and Manchester City's struggles in Europe's main competition have been well documented, regardless of the man in charge. Manchester United still very much look like a work in progress and nowhere near European domination.

If England are to enjoy European success anytime soon, Chelsea seem to be the safer bet - and even the Blues have troubles of their own as an aging John Terry and his sidekick Gary Cahill can sometimes suffer at the hands and feet of swift, mobile forwards. Still, Chelsea look far more composed when they give the ball away, for instance, and immediately proceed to adjust in order to protect the fastest way to their goal.

• Conclusion

But perhaps the most worrying signs are not the ones that can be perceived in the Champions League, but rather on English pitches week in, week out. In a time where coaches the world over are more and more concerned about how to populate the centre of the pitch correctly and create chances in that particular part of the pitch given its primordial importance, it is baffling to see Manchester City, Arsenal or Liverpool being ripped apart by any team that attacks them through the centre on quick attacking transitions - something that stronger European sides seldom forgive.

In short, the reason why the Premier League remains such an interesting, attractive proposition may well be the very reason why England must rely on José Mourinho and Chelsea if they want to brag about being top dogs again.

PortuGOAL's latest podcast

The latest installment of PortuGOAL's series of podcasts has been released and can be found here. In it Tom and I discuss what conclusions can be taken from the first half of the Portuguese league and we also have a quick-fire round of questions about José Mourinho, Cristiano Ronaldo, Nuno Espírito Santo and Bernardo Silva.

Spoiler alert: the show was recorded before the recent turn of events that saw both FC Porto and Benfica throw away their respective three points.

Football's Laws of Attraction

Despite being bandied about all over, it is sometimes hard to grasp the notion of what exactly is the "decision-making" that everyone keeps talking about. One would be hard pressed to find a clearer example than Stefano Mauri's goal in the last Rome derby.


AS Roma vs Lazio (2-2) Full Highlights 11/01... by rubin7190

As one of the last few one-club men in his time, Daniele De Rossi is one of the most respected players in Italy and a symbol for his club. With his nation, De Rossi has won the World Cup and has a bronze medal from the 2004 Olympics and a silver medal from the 2012 Euros. Back in 2012, he was even close to a move to Manchester City following his stellar displays in midfield (and sometimes in a three-men defence).

Nevertheless, not even a player like De Rossi is free from the pull that a round piece of leather exerts over players ever since they (and we) were kids. One of the most curious sights in football is to watch a spontaneous match between young toddlers, where all one can see is a bunch of infants gathered around what must surely be a black hole, such is the gravitational pull.

In this case, De Rossi ended up doing exactly that, as it is possible to attest over the following pictures.

1. Roma give the ball away down their right wing and a 3x3 situation immediately arises.

2. Felipe Anderson progresses up the pitch while Roma try to contain the threat while waiting for back-up. Vasileios Torosidis can be seen sprinting back to try to improve his team's odds. De Rossi seems to be analysing the situation correctly as he glances over the space behind Davide Astori. Stefano Mauri, the eventual goalscorer, is still a few yards behind both Astori and De Rossi.

3. A simple, outside overlapping run leads De Rossi to make the inadvertent decision to approach the ball instead of providing coverage for his team-mate, effectively succumbing to football's laws of attraction and opening up a gaping hole in the heart of his very defence (shaded circle).

4. Even though De Rossi realises his mistake, it is already too late and Felipe Anderson is wise to pick his pass at the right moment as Mauri makes his run into the penalty box.

• Conclusion

While watching the video, one is able to realise just how quickly this whole process takes place, which might help explaining just why improving the players' decision-making skills and ability to read and understand the game (and what is asked of them at any given moment) is one of today's top priorities for most coaches.

FC Porto X Benfica: Dragons' comeback or Benfica's opportunity?

Picture credit: zerozero.pt

In a league where the two major clubs have been running away with the title with increasingly greater ease, FC Porto and Benfica now must make the most of these showdowns between the two archenemies. The old saying used to act as a cautionary tale against the importance of these matches, drawing attention to the fact that smaller teams were usually the runners-up's undoing. Not anymore.

With that in mind, Sunday evening's match will treat us once again with two very different approaches - and even though the match won't probably reach the same levels of managerial proficiency of the now memorable duels between Vítor Pereira and Jorge Jesus as coaches and personalities, there will in fact be some common traits.

• FCP's defence vs SLB's attack

Jorge Jesus might welcome Alex Sandro and Danilo, who has probably been enjoying his best season at FC Porto, with open arms, but truth be told the Dragon's defence has looked anything but impenetrable. While Bruno Martins Indi looks more and more like a shrewd (albeit not cheap) piece of business, his partner - whether it's Marcano or Maicon - leaves something more to be desired. On the other hand, FC Porto's ever marauding full-backs often leave space at the back that can be exploited by Benfica's Nico Gaitán and Salvio, and they're sometimes left exposed by Casemiro and Herrera.

In fact, the clash of styles may well begin on this part of the pitch. Julen Lopetegui's favoured possession-based approach relies heavily on the centre-backs seeing a lot of the ball. However, none of them look particularly adept and they are frequently found wanting while executing the strategy, which has offered more than a handful of opportunities to their opponents throughout the season. Jorge Jesus's Benfica, in turn, are more fond of transition-based matches, where they can make the most of spaces vacated by adversaries - something that might just play into the hands of Gaitán, Talisca and Jonas, with the latter being particularly keen on discovering pockets of space.

Advantage: Benfica

• The midfield battle

While nominally playing with two central midfielders, Benfica might not be at a disadvantage. Jorge Jesus usually has his teams very well drilled as far as defensive duties are concerned, even when it comes to his forwards and wingers. Moreover, the team's movement and compensations improve dramatically as the season goes on and the players get to know the coach's methods. If Óliver Torres and Hector Herrera are to play ahead of Casemiro, as expected, it will probably open up spaces for the excellent Enzo Pérez, whose understanding of the game and ability to penetrate enemy lines stands head and shoulders above Herrera's huffing and puffing.

Andreas Samaris, conversely, may well be another matter, since he still does not seem too familiar with Jesus's ideas and may find it hard to patrol his assigned spaces, with all of Óliver, Herrera and Yacine Brahimi tending to converge to his area. The other side of the coin? Look for Enzo Pérez to immediately pounce the moment FC Porto give the ball away and open up acres of space with just Casemiro shielding the side's back four (or sometimes less). As Sporting showed when they played at the Dragão for the Portuguese Cup, it may be easier to take this FC Porto down by allowing them to shoot themselves in the foot.

Advantage: Benfica

• FCP's attack vs SLB's defence

This is clearly where things get complicated for Benfica. While Luisão still commands a huge deal of respect by remaining able to stay ahead of the inevitable curve, Jardel is no Garay and Máxi Pereira has been showing signs of a gradual but constant decline. With Lopetegui's main attacking plan relying on 1v1 situations down the wings and Jesus's willingness to often allow his team to face even-numbers situations, the individual difference between Benfica's defenders and FC Porto's attackers might just be too much for goalkeeper Júlio César & Co. to handle.

If Gaitán is effectively deployed down the left, he will have to stay on his toes during the defensive phase, since the partnership of Danilo and (most likely) Cristián Tello will certainly prove too much for make-do left-back André Almeida, with Jardel - who will surely have his hands full with Jackson Martínez's skills and sheer strength - also wary of stepping out too far from his zone against such quick opponents.

If Benfica manage to stay compact, FC Porto will have a hard time breaking them down. If, on the contrary, the Eagles take the bait and start coming out in numbers, the Dragons' forwards will enjoy a field day.

Advantage: FC Porto