All about the next oppononent: interview with Porto expert Marcos

Tonight, VfB will face FC Por­to in the first of two Euro­pa League round-of-16 matches. To learn more about the club and the team from the Por­tu­gue­se port city, we spo­ke with FC Por­to expert Mar­cos.

With the Red Stri­pe: Hel­lo Mar­cos and thank you for taking your time to ans­wer my ques­ti­ons. FC Por­to is sit­ting at the top of the Pri­mei­ra Liga and could win the title for the first time in four years. How do rate the chan­ces on win­ning the league and what is Por­to doing dif­fer­ent­ly this sea­son than in the last three years?

Mar­cos: There’s a cli­ché in foot­ball, espe­ci­al­ly when you’re com­pe­ting in many com­pe­ti­ti­ons: to go game by game wit­hout thin­king too far ahead. FC Por­to is curr­ent­ly in very good phy­si­cal con­di­ti­on. As Fario­li said in a press con­fe­rence, the team has shown strong phy­si­cal per­for­mance indi­ca­tors in trai­ning. The first half against Ben­fi­ca was very encou­ra­ging despi­te the result. Even though it ended in a draw, the foot­ball play­ed by the blue-and-white team plea­sed all foot­ball fans. Strong in every pha­se of the game, Farioli’s team is pre­pared to face this knock­out round despi­te its dif­fi­cul­ty.

In my opi­ni­on, sea­sons are not real­ly com­pa­ra­ble, neither at FC Por­to nor at any other club. It depends on the squad qua­li­ty, the coach, and whe­ther the signings/squad were built accor­ding to the coach’s game model.
Spe­ci­fi­cal­ly at FC Por­to, the last three sea­sons have been mark­ed by a chan­ge in lea­der­ship after 40 years, with a new pre­si­dent, André Vil­las-Boas, who won the Euro­pa League in 2011 with FC Por­to.

In the Euro­pa League, Por­to finis­hed fifth and advan­ced direct­ly in to round of 16. Should they have finis­hed hig­her in the league pha­se or is this whe­re you see the team in terms of strength in the com­pe­ti­ti­on?

Becau­se of Farioli’s squad manage­ment, finis­hing in the top eight places was the team’s main objec­ti­ve. FC Por­to aims to win every com­pe­ti­ti­on, so they some­ti­mes mana­ge their squad in less dif­fi­cult matches. Howe­ver, Farioli’s manage­ment is a bit dif­fe­rent becau­se he rota­tes play­ers a lot, mea­ning many of them end up being regu­lar star­ters in a sen­se. Often the­re is one start­ing ele­ven in the Euro­pa League and ano­ther with 6–7 chan­ges for the league.

In the Taca de Por­tu­gal, Por­to lost the first leg of the semi final at Sport­ing. How are the club’s chan­ces on win­ning the cup — or the Euro­pa League?

At home, FC Por­to is usual­ly very strong. In the first leg of the cup, away at Sport­ing, Fario­li rota­ted six play­ers, with Fro­holdt lea­ding the chan­ges, pre­cis­e­ly to keep full ener­gy for the league match against Ben­fi­ca at the Luz.
The second leg will take place at the end of April, and a lot can chan­ge by then—players may get inju­red, Por­to may secu­re a cer­tain posi­ti­on in the league, and that can influence the teams’ men­ta­li­ty.

What was the reac­tion at Por­to when it was clear they were play­ing Stutt­gart? What kind of stan­ding, if any, does Stutt­gart have in Por­tu­gal?

To be honest, we didn’t want to face Stutt­gart. In gene­ral we know the Bun­des­li­ga is a very high-inten­si­ty league with excel­lent phy­si­cal levels, tac­ti­cal­ly well-pre­pared teams, and lots of indi­vi­du­al talent. Spea­king more spe­ci­fi­cal­ly about Stutt­gart, we know they are having an excel­lent Bun­des­li­ga sea­son and will cer­tain­ly be a very dif­fi­cult team to beat. It will be an inte­res­t­ing matchup in many aspects. I hope I have time to ana­ly­ze the oppo­nent as I usual­ly do (alt­hough with the cour­se I haven’t had as much time).

Loo­king at the stats: Por­to con­ce­ded only 10 goals in 25 games, goal­kee­per Dio­go Cos­ta has alre­a­dy 16 clean sheets. Are the strikes in the league just not very good or is Por­to very good defen­si­ve­ly?

Even though the­re is a level dif­fe­rence bet­ween the top four teams and the rest, teams in Por­tu­gal are very well coa­ched despi­te the low bud­gets of most clubs. FC Por­to is a high­ly com­pe­ti­ti­ve and phy­si­cal team, com­mit­ted in every pha­se of the game. The secret to con­ce­ding so few goals is that, bes­i­des having a Polish defen­si­ve “wall” that pro­vi­des gre­at secu­ri­ty (Bedna­rek and Kiwi­or) and a world-class goal­kee­per (Dio­go Cos­ta), our team’s game model demands a lot of defen­si­ve work from all 11 play­ers. It starts right from the front three, who press inten­se­ly and have many defen­si­ve tasks, whe­ther pres­sing high or defen­ding com­pact­ly in a medi­um-low block.
In my opi­ni­on, this is the secret behind FC Porto’s defen­si­ve suc­cess.

How would you compa­re the Pri­mei­ra Liga to the Bun­des­li­ga in terms of strength?

Many peo­p­le unde­re­sti­ma­te the Pri­mei­ra Liga, but the truth is that many play­ers move to the Pre­mier League and suc­ceed (some more than others). In gene­ral, the scou­ting level is extre­me­ly high, the ana­ly­sis level is among the best, and ever­yo­ne in the world reco­gni­zes the qua­li­ty of Por­tu­gue­se coa­ches, from youth deve­lo­p­ment to the hig­hest level. What main­ly dif­fe­ren­tia­tes the two leagues is the finan­cial manage­ment capa­ci­ty of Ger­man clubs—it’s so much grea­ter that they have far more money to invest and gene­ra­te for each club, not to men­ti­on the foot­ball cul­tu­re whe­re almost all sta­di­ums are full. In Por­tu­gal, peo­p­le usual­ly sup­port only five clubs—FC Por­to, SC Bra­ga, Vitória SC, Sport­ing CP, and Benfica—and that redu­ces the appeal of many league matches when sta­di­ums aren’t full. With your finan­cial struc­tu­re, we could cer­tain­ly go much fur­ther.

Samu who has scored 13 goals in 20 league games, is out due to a cru­cia­te liga­ment tear — how much is this hur­ting the team and who else should we look out for?

As I said befo­re, FC Por­to is a very balan­ced team in all pha­ses of the game: strong in offen­si­ve tran­si­ti­ons, strong in mani­pu­la­ting the game to crea­te insi­de com­bi­na­ti­ons, espe­ci­al­ly when pres­sed high, and fre­quent­ly app­ly­ing the “third-man” prin­ci­ple to find Vare­la.

Apart from the obvious defen­si­ve strength: What are the strengths and weak­ne­s­ses of this Por­to team?

They mani­pu­la­te the cen­ter-backs with sup­port move­ments from Denis, attrac­ting the defen­ders and then exploi­ting space with a brea­king run from one of the inte­ri­or mid­fiel­ders. They are also very com­pe­tent at set pie­ces, having scored many goals from them this sea­son. Their kick-offs can also be impactful, whe­ther short or long. The wea­k­est point is undoub­ted­ly decis­i­on-making, most of the time in the final third.

Stutt­gart has never play­ed against Por­to. What should tra­ve­ling VfB sup­port­ers see or do in the city next week, can you recom­mend some­thing?

I can say that you should try fran­ces­in­ha, bifa­na, and if you like fish, a good bacal­hau dish. Drink ple­nty of Super Bock, and if you tre­at ever­yo­ne with respect, you will cer­tain­ly be trea­ted well too. Visi­ting the Ribei­ra and Liv­ra­ria Lel­lo is also a must. The atmo­sphe­re will be incredible—I think the tickets will alre­a­dy be sold out.

Who, apart from Samu, will be miss­ing the game on Thurs­day?

Samu, Luuk de Jong, and Nehuén Pérez.

Thank you very much!

Pic­tu­re: © Jose Manu­el Alva­rez Rey/Getty Images