FC Porto 4-0 FC Basel: Dragons destroy Swiss team to bits in magical night

As Portugal's sole representative in the Champions League, FC Porto were trying to successfully negotiate their way into the competition's quarter-finals stage for the fifth time, thus cementing their place as the country's leading force in Europe (second-best Benfica only managing to achieve it twice since the inception of the Champions League).

Without captain Jackson Martínez, recently injured against Braga, and Óliver Torres only fit for the bench, there were some questions marks about the Dragons' ability to beat a side that both Real Madrid and Liverpool had found to be tricky. As it turns out, Julen Lopetegui's charges put in the performance of the season so far and will have certainly put some of their names on the radar of bigger European teams.

• The unstoppable force from the Cameroon

Vincent Aboubakar was brought in at the beginning of the season both to provide cover for Jackson Martínez and give him the opportunity to slowly learn the ropes in order to take the Colombian striker's place when he eventually moved away to greener pastures. Even though his goals per minute ratio was certainly impressive, the Cameronian hadn't played that much this season and there were some question marks here about whether he would be able to find his stride in such lofty environments.

Aboubakar was indeed fundamental to the night's outcome, and he proved as much right from the start. With FC Basel seemingly willing to press from the front - their 4x2x3x1 fitted perfectly into FC Porto's 4x3x3 - FC Porto's centre-backs were forced to resort several times to long balls and the striker did not disappoint, effectively linking up play with his team-mates. The 47 passes he received throughout the match painted the perfect picture.

As has often been the case, for all the ball possession FC Porto actually looked more dangerous on the counterpressing - i.e. when they won the ball immediately after giving it away. The first goal, on 14 minutes, was the perfect example as Casemiro made a well-timed tackle and then played a probing pass into Cristian Tello, who ended up being fouled. Brahimi's expertly taken free kick was the first of four delightful goals.

• Solid improvements across the board

 FC Porto had been looking better over the past few weeks and the wins against Sporting and Braga certainly didn't hurt matters, but there remained a few doubts about the team's ability whenever the going got tougher. Given how the team had struggled to create many chance against Basel and that a 1-1 scoreline was a tricky scoreline, both teams's approach was something of a mystery. Basel's initial attempt at pressing high up quickly fizzled out, but FC Porto consolidated all the marginal gains from the past weeks.

There were two things in particular that made a significant difference. On one hand, both Evandro and Herrera were much more willing to penetrate enemy lines and drag their direct markers out of position, thus creating confusion about which Basel player should be marking whom. This had the knock-on effect of putting more FC Porto players near the ball when it was given away and consequently allowing the Dragons to exert greater control over the match, which has not always been the case so far.

On the other hand, both Tello and Brahimi - for all their attacking forays - were willing to track back, unlike what has often happened this season, stopping Basel to hit the wings, particularly on the break. All of this compounded Basel's misery and stopped them in their tracks as the Swiss side were never able to find their groove and, as time went on, started subsiding.

• Dragons discover central virtue

A 1-0 scoreline was good, but it was not exactly an insurance policy, since a goal from Basel would level things. As it were, Brahimi made another one of his darting runs down the left (which had already brought him a few bruises during the first half) and slid the ball to Herrera, who had no trouble dispatching the ball into Vaclík's far corner. Whatever doubts remained were quickly and surely disappearing.

However, perhaps the most important point to take from this match is FC Porto's change of tack as far as the attacking approach is concerned. Unlike what happened against Braga and Sporting, for instance, today there were virtually no aimless crosses thrown into the box, despite Aboubakar's physical presence.

In fact, the chances created from open play throughout the match spoke for themselves and showed the patter to exhaustion: Initiate attacks down the wings to attract the opponents there and then find the pockets of space in the middle. This time around, there were even midfielders supporting those runs, with the rest of players close by just in case.

In the end, Casemiro and Aboubakar would score another two gems, the Brazilian midfielder with a piledriver from 30 yards out and the Cameronian striker with a fine solo run that made for possibly the goal of the evening. However, the most impressive tonight was certainly FC Porto's ability to leave their indelible mark on what will certainly be remembered as one of the club's magical nights in the Champions League. A fifth presence in the competition's quarter-finals was guaranteed and the display that led to it will certainly have supporters gagging for what's to come against Europe's stronger sides.

PortuGOAL and Just-Football.com

Ahead of tonight's match between FC Porto and Basel, PortuGOAL's latest podcast analyses the Portuguese team's situation (and whether or not results are a true reflection of proceedings) on one hand and, on the other, takes a look at Portuguese players in Spain and Spanish players at FC Porto thanks to the participation of the reputable David Cartlidge, in what is probably one of the website's best podcasts so far. You can check it here.

Leading up to the match, there is still time to take a look at a piece on Just-Football.com about the 10 most exciting prospects playing in the Portuguese league. Some may surprise you, some you may fundamentally disagree with. Either way is fine. You can check it here.

SCB 0–1 FC Porto: Dragons keep up the pace up front

After Sunday’s comprehensive defeat of Sporting, FC Porto had another tough obstacle to overcome – this time it was Braga, who had arrived at this match on the back of a very interestingly winning streak. If Julen Lopetegui’s had any hopes of breathing down Benfica’s neck, victory was mandatory.

However, the team led by the Dragons’ former glory Sérgio Conceição had other ideas and wasn’t willing to roll over, particularly because Sporting’s defeat last Sunday at the Dragão meant that Braga were in touching distance of a much sought-after Champions League berth.

• Guerreiros stifle Dragons from first whistle

As the only team that had beaten Benfica twice this season, Braga certainly did not need any more letters of recommendation and, with their own agenda in mind, came out strong from the get-go. Ruben Micael and Zé Luís allowed both Maicon and Marcano time on the ball, but effectively closed the easy, obvious passing lanes to Casemiro, thus forcing several long balls out of FC Porto’s centre-backs. With the excellent Pedro Tiba and Danilo sticking close to their direct opponents, Lopetegui’s men had no choice but to play outside Braga’s block, forcing crosses upon crosses.

In fact, that was perhaps the most interesting aspect of the match, as Danilo and Tiba were virtually marking Herrera and Evandro out of the match (Evandro would later improve his performance), the same happening practically everywhere on the pitch, almost resembling a series of individual battles - with little movement from FC Porto to burst past the man-marking approach.

FC Porto were once again showing their vulnerabilities, since the team kept lacking collective answers to bypass teams who are adept at patrolling the area in front of their penalty box and that, unlike Sporting, don’t allow acres of space to exploit behind the back four. All of that meant that it was up to the most skilled players to make the difference, i.e. Jackson Martínez and Brahimi. Indeed, the Dragons only showed some of their potential either when Jackson dropped back to link up play (but with no one taking in his place in the penalty box for the eventual crossing that is the side’s most frequent solution) or Brahimi got past his man, particularly after moving to his more natural left wing 15 minutes into the match.

• FC Porto gradually improve

Despite their cohesive defending and the dangerous-looking transitions, Braga actually struggled to create clear-cut chances, with the exception of the 5th minute set-piece that had Fabiano once again fumbling for the ball. As the match wore on, though, FC Porto became more proactive when they lost the ball and the energy of Braga’s front four slowly subsided.

Ironically, FC Porto always looked more dangerous when Braga committed men forward on their breakaways, with the ball often travelling down the wings - Lopetegui’s insistence on ignoring the centre means that their charges never invade the most dangerous areas of the pitch, thus needing numerous attacking situations to create a clear chance, usually after yet another cross.

The end of the first half brought a bit more danger as Tello started finding more space to run into and, on the other hand, Evandro started making himself more available to receive bisecting passes from the centre-backs (but was eventually replaced not long into the second half).

• FC Porto repeat winning formula

Similarly to what had happened against Sporting, FC Porto looked willing to be more intense when they came back from the dressing room. With Braga gradually tiring out, the Dragons started finding more space to exploit, even though (half) chances kept coming far and between. Despite Evandro’s improvement, the midfielder was replaced with Ricardo Quaresma, meaning the Dragons were now playing a 4x2x3x1 of sorts, with Brahimi off Aboubakar (who had taken the injured Jackson Martínez’s place).

In what turned out to be a slow-burning second half (and match overall), it became clearer and clearer how FC Porto had an Óliver Torres-shaped hole in the middle, without anyone able to pick apart opposing defences with passes, movements or dummies and this forcing opponents out of their comfort zone. With Braga fading more and more out of the contest as the match wore on, the Dragons got tighter to Sérgio Conceição’s men and, in one of those situations, Aboubakar left Tello one on one against Matheus and the Spaniard replicated what he had done so well against Sporting.

 All in all, it was a very cagey match from two of the best teams in the Portuguese league that promised a bit more, but the fact that both teams needed the three points might help explain both sides’ fearfulness. On the other hand, it was hard not to feel disappointed by how both teams looked most comfortable when the other side lost the ball and thus paved away for quick breaks, rather than showing good skills as far as attacking organisation is concerned.

FC Porto may have won the match – and in hindsight may have in fact been the team more willing to chase the goal – but the end result seems to be less of a collective effort than a consequence of a much stronger squad individually. Victories will always offer some shade, but FC Porto’s process has yet to persuade.

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.