PORTO will be new opponents for Arsenal and they might be better than their first game would suggest.
Porto 0 CSKA 0 was not a terrible result on Matchday 1, only a disappointing result.They could not field their best side and it was dull game. Cech and Moreiles, two of their big players, did not play against CSKA.
In a mini-league, Porto, like any team, need points, and it doesn’t matter where they get them or when they get them, as long as they accumulate just enough points to finish above Hamburg and CSKA.
Are Porto, with four wins in four league games, better than those two ? Nobody knows until each club has played five more games.
Their new coach Jesualdo Ferreira was appointed in controversial circumstances in August, while we were on holiday in the Algarve. A taxi driver told me that he had only just been appointed at Boavista, the other team in Porto, when he quit to replace Dutch coach Co Adriaanse at Porto.
City rivals pinch your coach before a ball has been kicked ! The president of Boavista wasn’t happy !
Winger Quaresma is a chunky boy who did some great things for the national Under-18 team. He went to Barcelona too young, as Simao did, then came back to Portugal.
Quaresma, 23 today, can produce good crosses from both flanks.
Bosingwa is an ex-winger playing at right back, so he can beat a man.
Striker Adriano goes for a lot of headers but will not score a header tonight.
Arsenal have never played Porto in a competitive match before and have not played a Portuguese club since that unforgettable night in 1991 when Isaias of Benfica took them apart in extra time.
The superskilful Brazilian had scored a fine goal in the first leg in the Stadium of Light, a 1-1 draw, and here he sent two more shots flashing past David Seaman and Arsenal lost 3-1 after extra time
That night, Isaias was better than Cantona, better than Baggio, better even than Gullit. But he was never that awesome again and Benfica did nothing after that. The format was different then and beating Arsenal put Benfica into the Group stage, where they did not win another match.
I remember being put in the press overspill with Jim Lawton, Hugh McIvanney and Neil Harman, in the Upper East, and watching Arsenal score first and seeing Kevin Campbell’s header come back off the post. That would have made it 2-0.
Memory works in strange ways. I can’t explain why I remember that European game better than the dozens that Arsenal have played with Arsene, even though I recall some of them very well, like Barcelona, Bayern, Deportivo, Valencia.
Maybe it’s because I wrote about them so extensively on ANR and in The Professor. For me, writing is forgetting. Once something is in print, that gives me permission to forget it.
I remember meeting Sven-Goran Eriksson for the first time and being impressed ( !!!!!) I judge a manager by his team and his team was technical and athletic and balanced : Yuran, a combative Russian striker who could hold the ball up, Kulkov, another Russian who started the game at the back, Thern and Schwarz, two superb Swedes.
I remember Tony Adams looking unfit, George Graham coming in and taking the 3-1 defeat with dignity, his anger very well controlled, really taking it on the chin. I admired him for that. It was a sickening disappointment for George and he took it on the chin and I loved that. He said Benfica wouldn’t do anything because their goalkeeper Nene was clueless and he was right about that.
My main memory, my overwhelming memory of that night, was waiting to lose.
After half an hour I realised that Benfica were so skilful than Arsenal could not win, so I was just sitting there waiting to lose. That is a very, very odd experience which I’ve never had before or since in 40 years of watching football.
Waiting to lose was weird. Waiting to lose, after thinking, “If Arsenal win the European Cup I’ll buy a souvenir T-shirt and wear it in the Algarve in August.” Waiting to lose, thinking, “Please, finish us off in 90 minutes, don’t let it go to extra time, just score now, don’t prolong my agony.”
Arsenal never played another Portuguese club at Highbury and now, fifteen years later, Porto arrive at the Emirates.
This time I will not be waiting to lose. I’ll be waiting to win and sitting in the world’s most comfortable football stadium seat and wearing the world’s most comfortable moccasins (Foreva deck shoes, bought last month in Lisbon for 40 euros, made in Guimares, just north of Porto).
I hope we won’t have to wait 94 minutes to win this game. Hope it won’t be that close but I’m expecting a low-scoring game..
Anderson, the explosive eighteen year old Brazilian, cannot do what Isaias, a powerful man of 27, did in 1991. Anderson will catch the eye but no teenager can do what Isaias did that night.
WHAT WILL the Arsenal team be? I reckon Hleb will come in for Freddie.
Benfica play Manchester United in Lisbon tonight and Cristiano Ronaldo is in good form. Will Rooney and Saha score against one of the weakest Benfica teams of all time?
Jose Antonio Reyes will play for Real Madrid against Dynamo Kiev. The fans are expecting a lot and he is enjoying life on the right wing. I like Reyes and hope he has a long career there.