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."
