I unfortunately haven't had time to comment until now, but what a response that was last night. For those that love to see everything in black and white, this win was simply awesome while the Hull defeat was just useless, life isn't black and white though.Porto threatened early on and could have easily taken the lead, we survived a couple of very shaky moments at the back and fortunately took our chances in the first half, the rest is history. It does go to show just how crucial it is to take one's chances, while it's always important to have a bit of luck, as if Porto had taken the lead who knows how it could have ended up.
In the end it could have been more more embarrassing for Porto, we did squander some absolute sitters in the second half as the visitors ran out of steam completely. It was good to see RVP get a couple of goals, hopefully this can be the kick start to his season, he does need to start justifying his reputation. We all know just how much ability he has, it's just up to him to prove it on a regular basis.
I know it's easy to generalise, ifs and buts can seem pretty hypothetical as well, however in football you do have to take your chances when they come along; frequently the first goal can be the key to a game. The media and some supporters do tend to interpret the performance based on the scoreline rather than judging the actual performance.
Hull was not that bad a performance, we just suffered because Hull converted a high percentage of their chances and we missed countless good chances at the other end. Porto was a good performance no doubt, but the result may well have been different if Porto had taken one of their early chances. It is all ifs and buts and opinions, that's the beauty of being a football supporter. They key to success this season will be to win when playing badly, as well as winning when playing well, and that again comes down to good defending and taking one's chances in front of goal.
3 comments:
I do partly agree - the first 45 mins of the Porto game, in terms of level of performance were not too different to the Hull game. Some may say RvP and Ade played better, and that was the difference.
The thing is they scored two chances they missed against Hull, so obviously they contributed more. But I am not sure they played any better over the whole 90 mins. I thought RvP was fine against Hull, and i thought over the 90 Ade wasn't that awesome against Porto.
The threat at each end in both games was from Theo scaring the bejesus out of the opposition defence, and a shakiness in our own defence and being first to the ball in and around the box.
The difference overall in the 2 games, unbelievably, is that Hull played better. They didn't give up at 1-0 down. The other difference was the 2,176 Eboue stepovers.
And just another thing for K-man.........
Porto gave up when it got to 3-0 down, but until then Porto perhaps did not deserve to lose so heavily.
I agree that in teams of a performance, this was only marginally better than Hull. The last 15 mins of the game and the scoreline does not reflect the fact that we could easily have been behind at half time.
That said, i was quite impressed by some of the performances. Nasri added something on the left, a bit of subtlety compared to Theo's Roadrunner impression. Denilson was also quietly affective, again.
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