coach vítor pereira realises a long-held dream when fc porto host fc shakhtar donetsk and his aim is to ensure their unbeaten record in opening-day home games stays intact.
vítor pereira realises a long-held uefa champions league dream when he leads fc porto into their group g fixture with fc shakhtar donetsk on tuesday and he has promised to keep up their proud record of never having lost an opening group match at home.
porto coach vítor pereira: "if we have never lost the first match of the champions league, of course we're not losing one now! but we are playing shakhtar, a great club with many good players, very good brazilian players, but we have what it takes to counter their quality. coaching in the champions league is the dream of every coach. i have heard the champions league anthem many times, seen many matches in the stands, but now i'm here, and i knew i would get here. shakhtar might not have the history of other big clubs in this competition, but everyone in football knows they are one of the best teams in europe. "i'm expecting a great atmosphere – it's to experience these moments of pressure that i've worked my whole life for".
shakhtar coach mircea lucescu: "the main objective is to get through to the next phase, because at the moment my team are not ready to win the champions league. the losses of guarín and rolando are not a problem for porto because they have other good players to replace them. it's obvious that hulk is a world star, up there with the best, but he's not the only one. porto's midfield is the most important part of their team, it's there that all the play starts. their style of play is very smooth and they're strong all over the pitch. so we'll meet a very good team – they are very young but their quality is immense and playing them at their ground is very difficult."
hulk's early penalty miss did not prove costly as the brazilian made amends before kléber won the game against visitors who finished with nine men.
fc porto gave vítor pereira a victorious start to his uefa champions league coaching career after they won 2-1 against an fc shakhtar donetsk side that finished with nine men.
in a pulsating first half, hulk twice struck the woodwork – the second time from the penalty spot – before finding the net with a stunning 28th-minute free-kick. that effort cancelled out luiz adriano's opportunistic opener, and after yaroslav rakitskiy was sent off for the ukrainian titleholders just before the break, porto made full use of their extra man. kléber tapped in early in the second period and that was enough against visitors who also lost dmytro chygrynskiy to a second booking late on.
it was an open game from the off and hulk made an instant impact on his return to the porto starting lineup, seeing a fifth-minute shot take a wicked deflection off team-mate steven defour and hit the crossbar. five minutes later the hosts were awarded a penalty when rakitskiy tangled with james rodríguez. hulk sent olexandr rybka the wrong way but was denied by the foot of the post.
shakhtar had already looked menacing before scoring within 120 seconds of hulk's errant spot kick. helton appeared to have covered a shot from the lively willian, his fellow brazilian, only for the ball to bounce off the goalkeeper and another compatriot, luiz adriano, was on hand to turn it in.
a long-range free-kick from shakhtar's henrik mkhitaryan seemingly gave hulk ideas as he cracked in the powerful, swerving set piece from 35 metres that rybka could only help into the top corner, living up to lucescu's pre-match label of being a "world star". five minutes before the break rakitskiy was sent off for a foul on joão moutinho as momentum swung towards porto.
lucescu reacted by bringing on olexandr kucher at centre-half, sacrificing eduardo and switching to a narrow 4-2-2-1 formation. the dynamics of the contest had fundamentally altered and rodríguez twisted past kucher down the left before providing a perfect low cross for another uefa champions league debutant, kléber, to roll in.
rodríguez, just 20, continued to catch the eye and hit the bar with a curling free-kick late on, but porto had to withstand a bit of late pressure from lucescu's side. chygrynskiy's dismissal with ten minutes remaining finished any hope of a shakhtar point, as porto held on to make a winning start in group g.
1. fc porto...1...1...0...0...2...1...1...3 2. apoel fc...1...1...0...0...2...1...1...3 3. fc shakhtar donetsk...1...0...0...1...1...2...-1...0 4. fc zenit st petersburg...1...0...0...1...1...2...-1...0
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