Dragões Champions League match 1

By: j | September 16th, 2008

Jesualdo Ferreira’s Porto squad welcome Istanbul giant Fenerbahçe to the Estádio do Dragão tomorrow in match day one of the Champions League.

Best summarized on the club web-site; “Victory is for now the only thing in the Portuguese champions’ mind”, Jesualdo Ferreira comes to the match focused on Champions League success this year.

He is more than aware of the importance of getting off to a fast start and not squandering important points at home:

“To win the first match is important in any competition, but it isn’t decisive or determinant. Nevertheless, we’ll play to win the match. We’re ready for it.”

In acknowledging the power that the Luis Aragonés-led Fenerbahçe possesses he noted:

”For what I know, Fenerbahçe isn’t weaker. They’ve kept most of their key players and they’ve acquired the Spanish league top scorer. For me, Fenerbahçe is a great team, with a large number of players used to win in major competitions and they’re definitely a strong opponent.”

However it has been anything but a good start to the Süper Lig season as they have only three points in three matches, losing twice to mid-table clubs that they should have overpowered. They are a brilliant group of players who have yet to gel as a team within Luis Aragonés complex pattern, yet have genius on their fingertips. At times they seem to be on the verge of an extraordinary masterpiece but at the last minute, the masterstroke goes astray and they are left to wonder what happened. Cristian Săpunaru will need to keep a watchful eye on Daniel Güiza, a sublime poacher and counter-attacker to can turn a match on its end in the blink of an eye.

However in addition to the aforementioned problems in general play the Yellow Canaries have also been bitten by the injury bug and head into this match missing Deivid de Souza, Semih Şentürk and Edu Dracena. If not said more simply, this is an extremely good squad that is both injured and not playing on the same page yet and it is critical to strike while the iron is hot and get three points up on them before the return engagement in November.

Jesualdo Ferreira has the luxury of roughly two weeks of uninterrupted preparation in this match for scouting as well as an extended period beyond the international break. Thanks to the regulatory Football bodies in Portugal, players have had the opportunity to recovery from arduous international duty.

I expect Jesualdo Ferreira and Luis Aragonés to use the following starting grids:

Porto
Helton
Cristian Săpunaru, Pedro Emanuel, Bruno Alves and Nelson Benítez/Jorge Fucile
Tomás Costa, Raul Meireles and Lucho González
Mariano González, Lisandro López and Cristian Rodríguez

Fenerbahçe
Volkan Demirel
Gökhan Gönül, Önder Turacı, Diego Lugano, and Roberto Carlos
Kâzım Kâzım (Colin Kazım-Richards), Claudio Maldonado, Selçuk Şahin, Uğur Boral
Alex, Daniel Güiza

Lucho González, Lisandro López, Mariano González and company must head straight at Fenerbahçe with the straight-forward notion of attack, attack, attack in a ruthless spirit and inexhaustible work-rate. The Yellow Canary’s have shown a weakness when they do not control the ball, typically losing concentration and are prone to mental errors. However there is sheer brilliance in their attack and you cannot give them a blade of grass without the hardest of challenges. While their lineup is stacked full of recognizable big-names, I’d like to emphasize Kâzım Kâzım (Colin Kazım-Richards) who I believe is ready to break out on the international scene. The Dragões will be well-advised to pay special attention to Mr. Kâzım, to which the work of Cristian Săpunaru and Tomás Costa might end-up being the critical aspect of the match.

I will report on the match once it concludes.