FC Porto

We bought 3 new players in the January-window. The signing of Raphinha was made already in October but he couldn't join our team until now.
Raphinha is a great player with big potential. The 23-year old winger were not happy at Sporting and I felt that 27M€ is a fantastic price for him.
We also signed Pedro from Fluminense in Brazil. Pedro is a 22-year old striker who scored almost 50 goals in less than 100 games for Fluminense. The Brazilian striker were very close to sign for Benfica, and that's the way I found him. Pedro himself prefered Porto over Benfica and that's why we got him.
Sousa is a 16-year old talent from Vitoria Setubal. He is a CM and he has got a 5-star potential so I'm sure that he will be great for us in the future.




We began the new year by getting absolutely smashed by Benfica in Lisbon. After a quiet first half we didn't manage to hold out and Benfica scored four.
Against Gil Vicente Raphinha made his debut and he managed to score two goals already in the first half. Gil Vicente is one of the worst teams in the league and it was an easy win.
The game against Rio Ave was boring but we managed to get the three points thanks to the goals by Foden and Mbemba.


After getting smashed in Lisbon I realized that the league title will not stay in Porto this year. That was our last chance to get closer and to end their winning-streak. As I've mentioned earlier, I don't think that we have had a bad season, it's just Benfica that have been way too good.
Our biggest problem has been the defence who has conceded 21 goals in 19 games which is more than we conceded the whole last season in the league (20).


In the league cup semifinal we played against SL Benfica on a neutral stadium. They were the better team but with a bit more luck we could have taken the game to penalties where we know that we have an advantage. A disappointing month to say the least. Now we look forward to the Champions League tie with Borussia Dortmund.
ScottT: Unfortunately it looks like Benfica won't drop any points I hope to go far in Europe instead, thank you!

Justice: Well Porto is a big club with 2 CL-titles, but I agree that it's one of the best results.

TheLFCFan: Thank you very much!

I think you're right, it seems Benfica are on course to topple you off your perch this season. Hopefully the European campaign can make up for it.

Unlucky in the league, but good going in the Champions League thus far. But to be fair, Benfica do have a good team in this, especially those youngsters. But hope you bring some silverware back this season.

In the league we had one of the best months this season. We took two easy wins at home, and away we took six points out of six despite some struggles.
Varzim is one of the worst teams in the league and I expected an easy win. It was 1-1 after 55 minutes so I put on both Aboubakar and Brahimi, and they scored one goal each. I thought everything was over at that point but Varzim worked their way back into the game and Brahimi saved us with a very important goal in the 90th minute.


I said that we have given up in the league last month, and now I have to regret that. Benfica lost at home to Nacional and got only one point away in Guimaraes, leaving us only two points behind in the table.
With 11 games left we have everything in our own hands. Let's not forget that we play both Sporting and Benfica at home, while Benfica play us and Sporting away. The league title might be decided in the very last round when we take on Benfica at the Dragao.


What a game, what an win!
We went to Dortmund with big hopes to get a good result but this was way better than expected. I was a bit scared after our loss to Leipzig earlier this season and I feared that German teams could be a problem for us.
We got an early lead through a penalty scored by Aboubakar, and after that everything was so easy. Dortmund were not even close to scoring and 0-3 is a result that should make us advance.
However, it's important to not underestimate them and play until the last whistle of the referee!

A much better month there and Benfica's loss has left the door wide open. A fantastic win in the first leg against Dortmund too, which puts you in a prime position going into the second leg.

Still all to play for in the league and you've put down a real marker in Europe with an outstanding win!

Last season our unbeaten run came to an end away at Sporting, and we ended up smashing them in Dragao later on. The exact same thing happened this year. We took on Sporting just three days before them going to Da Luz to play Benfica, and we sent a clear message to both Lisbon teams. It was good to see Raphinha scoring against his old team.
We managed to demolish not only Sporting, but Tondela and Estoril as well and it was a perfect month with 3 victories and 12-0 goal difference.


In some weird way we are top of the table with just 8 rounds to go. As earlier mentioned, I gave up my plans on the title after losing by four goals to Benfica, but in some way we are on the top again.
This is a chance that we should not let slip and the title could be decided in the last round against Benfica.


We had to defend a 3-0 lead from the first leg in Germany and we got a penalty only 3 minutes in, exactly like in Dortmund. After scoring the penalty we just kept on going and we managed to beat the germans by a total of seven goals to one.
We now look forward to the quarterfinal draw where we will be drawn against either Benfica, Real Madrid, PSG, Liverpool, Juventus, Chelsea or Lyon.

Lyon would be the ideal draw, personally. Either way, you have done remarkably well in Europe. Great to see you regain top spot in the league too! A spotless month.

Going great now. And goodluck against PSG. I'm confident you can beat them this time.

Incredibly well presented, it is like reading through a recap of the event on Sky or some other major media site. Well done. The draw is an interesting one, revenge has to be on the mind!

Love the presentations as Justice noted. PSG will be a tricky side to beat, as you found out first-hand last season - however, revenge is a dish best served cold. It's meant to be.

In the game against Marítimo a win would leave Benfica four points behind us in the table. But it was a hard game just like the other four this month. We had a very tough schedule and I didn't play with the best eleven for one single league-game this month. It's very stupid that we have games just two days before and after the Champions League-games. They could put the games Friday - Tuesday - Saturday instead of Sunday - Tuesday - Thursday. On top of that, Aboubakar was out the whole month because of an injury.


These results puts us in a terrible position before the last month. If Benfica win their game in-hand they will be four points in front of us which will be impossible for us to reach. They need to drop at least one point in their upcoming three games for us to have the chance to win the title in the last round against them.
The fight for the CL-spots is very tight. Sporting finished on the third place the last two seasons who led to the Europa League. This year we have got 3 Champions League spots but it looks like they will miss out on it this year again.



Sweet, sweet, sweet revenge! We got of to a terrible start in Paris and conceded only five minutes in. Cavani was a threath throughout the game. He had over 10 shots towards our goal. But because of Corona's equalizer in the 21st minute we didn't have to go offensive and I was happy with a 1-1 draw from the first game.
In the second game the Parisians looked extremely tired while our starting eleven didn't play in the league and were fully fit for this leg. We were much better than Paris and with two goals in the first half they couldn't find a way back into the game.

In the semifinal we have been drawn against Juventus. It feels unbelieveable to be here and to be drawn against the Italian champions who I think that we can beat. We played them twice last season and both games ended 2-2.
The other semifinal will be played between Liverpool FC and Chelsea.
Thank you for your comments. I tried to make it look like the real draw on uefa.com. I'm glad you liked it!

Not the best set of results domestically and Benfica now have the chance to take the league title away from you, but you truly demolished PSG! Juve will be tough but you're in the game to play the tough games!

Two wins in the league and Aboubakar showed off after coming back from his injury by scouring four goals.
The interesting results, however, were not in our games but in Benfica's. They had the chance to secure the title with a win at Rio Ave but lost with 2-1 giving us the chance to take home the title.
Benfica has 81 points and we have 80 before the last matchday when we take on Benfica at the Dragao!


In the semifinal of the Champions League we took on Juventus who we have played equal with before. I was confident after knocking-out Paris.
We took the initiative in the game, and Juventus looked very title, probably because of their busy schedule as well. We took a 2-0 lead before halftime but Ronaldo scored just three minutes into the second half.
Phil Foden managed to answer that with the 3-1 goals just four minutes later and everything looked good. We had control of the game and everything looked like we would travel with a 2-goal lead to Torino, when suddenly Pepe just gave the ball away to Douglas Cousta who scored another one for Juventus.
A big change of course for the outcome but I was still confident going to Italy.

In the return leg Juventus started almost with the same eleven as in the first leg. Ronaldo looked very tired and Douglas Costa was half-injured.
The Italian champions got a good start with a goal from Ronaldo just 23 minutes in, meaning that we had to score to go through. In the 39th minute, Svetozar Markovic tooked down Douglas Costa to stop a counter attack and the referee gave him a red card. It was a big mistake from the referee because we had two players in front of goal so Costa was not alone.
I knew that it would be hard to come back from this and Ronaldo scored his second goal in the 45th minute meaning that we now had to score two.
But just before the ref blew the whistle for halftime we managed to get one back through Raphinha.
In the second half we had to try to score despite being one man less on the pitch. In the 62nd minute we got our second goal after putting a ball into the box who touched Cancelo and went it. Now we just had to defend our lead on aggregate but Ronaldo did not accept that. He scored just six minutes later and the result was 3-2 until the last minutes of the game. I was planning for extra-time when Ronaldo got his fourth goal from a corner in the 89th minute. I had to go all-out attack the last minutes resulting in two counter attacks and two more goals conceded.
We are knocked out from the Champions League and despite the red card and everything that went against us, we would have been through if Pepe did not gave away that goal to Douglas Costa in the first leg. With 3-1 from Dragao, 4-2 in Torino would take us through and those last two goals wouldn't have been conceded since we wouldn't have gone all offensive in the end.
I did not expect Ronaldo to score five goals but I guess you should always count on him. The guy were on 80% before the game and played with less than 70% energy in the second half and still managed to demolish us.
A bitter way to lose but we really proved ourselves in Europe and now we have to defend the league title in the last game against Benfica.