Inter opponents, Porto does not shine but achieves the tenth victory in a row

Lots of ball possession, little show. Despite this, Sergio Conceiçao leaves the field with a smile: his Porto beat Rio Ave 1-0 to climb to 51 points in the standings, two less than leaders Benfica, who take the field on Monday. In view of the Champions League match against Inter, however, the Portuguese coach will have to review his team’s offensive maneuvers. Although without full-backs Galen and Otavio (both injured), the Dragoes in fact struggled especially in the last few metres: in the 35th minute they hadn’t scored a single shot, ten minutes later they took the lead following developments from a free kick. Something more was seen in the second half, but not enough to make the Nerazzurri defense anxious.

BIND YOURSELF

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Certainly, in Porto’s 4-4-2, the lack of the two starting wingers has a clear effect in terms of the quality of the game. Wenderson Galen, left-footed, has been dealing with a muscle problem but should be back in time for Wednesday’s match. On the contrary, Otavio’s recovery seems unlikely. To replace them, Conceiçao chose Toni Martinez – deployed alongside Taremi, with Pepé on the left – and André Franco wide on the right. For the first quarter of an hour, the biancoblù did not let their opponents see the ball, but they never managed to enter their penalty area. The decisive turning point comes around half an hour, after a brief domination by Rio Ave, especially dangerous with a couple of shots from distance. Conceiçao changes strategy and writes some indications on a sheet of paper, then passed to Wendell and then to Pepé, “band mates” on the left out. From that moment Pepé played closer to the strikers, while Wendell took control of the lane, serving the assist to make it 1-0 in the 45th minute. Low cross from the left, touch by Toni Martinez and ball under the crossbar. Reminder for Inzaghi: watch out for set pieces, because in the dragons’ database there is (almost) a scheme for every occasion.

THE RECOVERY

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Upon returning from the changing rooms, Porto got off to a better start than in the first half. Taremi and his associates, able to dialogue in the strait, put the opposing defense in difficulty, good at resisting even from a corner. Except for a central crash by Boateng, however, Rio Ave never manages to worry Pepe and Marcano. The central experts held their ground until the final whistle, which fixed the result at 1-0: Porto did not shine and went through with a narrow victory, but lengthened their streak of consecutive victories. Now there are ten, considering all competitions.