The others may struggle and fight, but the big boys always get it done in the end. That’s always been the way globally in Portuguese club football and a look at the classifieds from Saturday night point to that being the case at Estádio do Dragão this weekend. It rarely felt inevitable, though, that Porto would finally break Estoril.
Much of that sentiment is informed by recent history. Having been the dominant force of the 21st century, the northerners’ status has taken a beating in recent years. Rivals Benfica have just completed a hat-trick of title wins for the first time since the late 1970s, and Porto have won nothing in this spell. Nuno, the man tasked with turning the tide, is under no illusions over how grave the situation is at a club he already has an intimate knowledge of, having served a reserve goalkeeper over two spells.
“Porto can’t go four years without a title,” said the new head coach a fortnight ago, on the cusp of the new campaign. There is little wriggle room for the new man, despite being faced with another partial reconstruction of the team; exactly the sort of task that his immediate predecessors have failed at.
So that’s why it never felt a given against Estoril, despite the game being played almost exclusively in the visitors’ half, with the suspicion that Iker Casillas might have been better manning one of the stalls selling roast chestnuts outside rather than standing largely idle between the posts. The Spain legend had 15 touches in the entire match while his opposite number, the inspired José Moreira (rating 8.57) had nearly four times as many, with 57.
Porto fans had been here before, with the final stanza of last season under José Peseiro confirming that they were well and truly back among the ranks of Portuguese footballing mortals. Under Peseiro, FCP lost three of their last seven Liga NOS matches at home last season, with two of those defeats by minnows Tondela and Arouca.
So André Silva’s 84th-minute winner was welcomed with relief as much as with joy. The young centre-forward always most the most likely to break the deadlock, having eight efforts on goal (four on target), and he was as prominent as he has been since pre-season. Silva has now scored in all of the team’s first three competitive matches of the season, including the Champions League play-off draw with Roma last midweek - or 11 in 11, if you want to go all the way back to the start of the team’s pre-season friendlies, an oft-quoted statistic in the Portuguese media over the weekend.
It is perhaps more germane to recall that Silva only scored his first goal for the first team in the final league game of last season, against neighbours Boavista, before following that up quickly, netting twice in the subsequent Taça de Portugal final with Braga, even if Peseiro’s side lost on penalties (the coach was fired shortly after and now, curiously, is in charge of Os Arsenalistas).
His importance in this evolving - and more Portuguese - Porto is already crystal clear. Shortly after full-time against Estoril, it was announced that the 20-year-old had signed a contract extension, running to 2021 and raising his release clause to a whopping €60m. If it’s good news for Porto, it is for the national team too, with considerable excitement surrounding the emergence of a striker of apparent substance.
Last week, Silva received the ultimate in endorsements - that of Domingos, the legendary Porto centre-forward who dominated the ‘90s, and whose 22-year-old son Gonçalo Paciência is - at least in theory - a direct competitor for the starlet, having also come through the ranks at the Dragão.
“I would like a Portuguese player to end up filling the gap that exists (in Porto’s centre-forward position),” he said. “As he’s my son, I’d naturally like it to be Gonçalo, but I wouldn’t be upset at all if (Silva) managed it. He’s a mobile player, astute in the penalty area and for him, there aren’t such things as lost causes. I see him as being like a Lisandro or Derlei.”
High praise indeed. Silva’s headed winner was expertly taken, and showed exactly why the club are happy to let Vincent Aboubakar go, with the Cameroonian seemingly closing on a move to Besiktas. Aboubakar, Bruno Martins Indi - who wasn’t even given a squad number - and Yacine Brahimi are still more likely than not to leave before the transfer window shuts.
It’s clear, then, that Nuno is already comfortable with taking tough decisions. One of those has been to leave out Miguel Layún, the versatile defender-cum-midfielder, who provided 15 assists from left-back last season. The Mexican stepped in for the suspended Alex Telles here, and his inviting cross created Silva’s goal, seconds after Sérgio Oliveira had frittered an almost-identical opportunity from another perfect Layún delivery. Layún provided seven key passes on his way to a star man display (8.84).
His inclusion was a one of a handful of alterations with Nuno having one eye on the return with Roma, with Porto having to score against Luciano Spalletti’s side to even have a chance of progressing to the group stage. The recalled Jesús Corona threw his hat in the ring for a place, providing five key passes in a good show of wing play. Otávio was pulled back into a deeper midfield role than the advanced one that he occupied in the Roma first leg, and offered a good all-round contribution of two shots, two key passes while Héctor Herrera and Rúben Neves did the hard yards, with12 interceptions and eight tackles between them.
The team’s versatility is needed, with two difficult and potentially season-shaping tasks to come this week. After Tuesday’s trip to the Stadio Olimpico, Porto will visit Sporting next Sunday night in a game stuffed with meaning, even at such an early stage. It was in the corresponding fixture at the Alvalade last January in which the gap between Porto and the top two from Lisbon became starkly apparent for anybody in doubt, and accordingly the curtain started to come down on the reign of Julen Lopetegui.
Nuno is already playing for high stakes, but his team already appear to have a degree of nerve. They’ll need it.
Can FC Porto secure title glory for the first time since 2013 this season? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
