Belenenses match review

By: j | August 24th, 2008

Porto started the defense of the Portuguese Liga title with a perfectly sound 2-0 defeat of Belenenses at Estádio do Dragão. As manager Jesualdo Ferreira had commented in his pre-match press conference that he had learned from the Supertaça defeat and corrected the problems, Porto came out looking likely a completely different squad. Confidence was noticeably up, creative flourish was very apparent yet never rushed and overall movement and passing very crisp.

From the start of the match with the first flourish of Raul Meireles, the Dragões displayed the knowing confidence of a champion and the match was an overwhelming one-sided affair. After a number of threats, Mariano González found the back of the net at the fifteenth minute. While finishing wasn’t clicking on all cylinders, given the mid-week International duties I was very surprised with the quality of movement and tactical precision in that attack as well as the complete swarming defensive play. While I have said on numerous occasions, the young Romanian Cristian Săpunaru did a tremendous job and left me with a very confident feeling of the back-line. With the overall play of the match in Porto’s control and Jesualdo Ferreira following suit of his concern over fatigue, Hulk was brought-in for Cristian Rodríguez with thirty-one minutes left in the match. He quickly showed a spark in the attack and was rewarded with his first goal as a Dragões with a brilliant left-footed strike from roughly twenty meters out to the far corner, nicking just under the bar, to bring the match to its final 2-0 score.

A brilliant start in so many ways to make all supporters happy. Beyond the score, the greatest story-line was the obvious confidence and resolve on the pitch. The campaign heats up fast as Porto face Benfica next week

Match Details
F.C. Porto: Helton; Cristian Săpunaru, Pedro Emanuel «cap», Bruno Alves and Benítez; Tomás Costa, Raul Meireles and Lucho González; Mariano González, Lisandro López and Cristian Rodríguez
Substitutes: Hulk for Cristian Rodríguez (69m), Freddy Guarín for Tomás Costa (74m), Jorge Fucile for Mariano González (80m)
Substitutes not used:: Nuno, Rolando, Bolatti, Farías

BELENENSES: Júlio César; Baiano, Carciano, Matheus and China; Rodrigo Arroz, Cândido Costa, Silas «cap» and Zé Pedro; Maykon and Marcelo Faria
Substitutes: João Paulo for Marcelo Faria (55m), Organista for Rodrigo Arroz (64m), Vinicius for Maikon (70m)
Substitutes not used: Assis, Mano, Evandro, Vanderlei

Goals: Mariano (15m), Hulk (83m)