Porto and Barcelona will face off after wins in the first round of the Champions League. In their opening match on the continent, Sergio Conceicao’s team defeated Shakhtar Donetsk 3-1. The Spanish champions put on a show-stopping display to defeat Royal Antwerp.
Preview (Porto vs. Barcelona)
The opening half of Porto’s matchup with Shakhtar Donetsk two weeks ago was well worth the 46,000-person attendance at Hamburg’s Volksparkstadion, as the two Group F contenders met in Germany amid the ongoing Russian invasion of the Ukrainian team’s homeland. Within 30 minutes of the game’s start, four goals were scored. Galeno’s early goal was canceled out by a header from Kevin Kelsy. Shakhtar was only on equal footing for two minutes before Galeno took advantage of a defensive blunder. Mehdi Taremi found the bottom corner to complete the rout.
Porto is comfortably in second place in Group H after one match. They followed up their opening Champions League victory by narrowly defeating Gil Vicente 2-1. However, their seven-game unbeaten streak was snapped on Friday when Benfica defeated them. Angel Di Maria scored the game’s lone goal. The hosts have an 11-game unbeaten home record to defend on Wednesday night. Coincidentally, those two defeats marked the only other times this season that they failed to score.
Porto has avoided defeat in each of its last three Champions League games played at Estadio do Dragao. They have yet to record their first home shutout of the year. Barcelona didn’t require a second invitation to take advantage of Porto’s defensive shortcomings on matchday one. Playing on the new ground hasn’t phased Barcelona at all so far this season. Joao Felix, an Atletico Madrid loanee, stole the show with two goals and an assist for Robert Lewandowski. The Catalans found the visit of Sevilla in Friday’s La Liga match to be more frustrating. With 76 minutes remaining, Sergio Ramos, who had recently returned, bundled Lamine Yamal’s cross into his own net. In the 2012 UEFA Super Cup, Barcelona won 2-0 on the strength of goals from Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas.
Team News
Pepe, the 40-year-old captain of Porto, missed the team’s loss against Benfica due to a muscular issue; in his place, Fabio Cardoso was sent off in the 19th minute. Porto manager Conceicao is concerned about Pepe’s condition for Wednesday’s game. Cardoso will be able to fill in for Ivan Marcano here if necessary before serving a domestic sentence, but the host team’s other injury worries include Zaidu Sanusi (muscle), Gabriel Veron (muscle), and Evanilson (knee). Marcano will be out for months due to a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Galeno will be up to his typical antics on the left flank for Porto after helping to all three of his team’s goals against Shakhtar and also supplying the cross for Taremi to meet.
Frenkie de Jong (ankle) and Pedri (muscle) of the midfield are both occupying beds in the medical area, and Raphinha’s absence could result in Lamine Yamal’s maiden Champions League start. Yamal’s cameo against Antwerp made him the second-youngest debutant in the league behind Youssoufa Moukoko.
In addition, Oriol Romeu could move back to the center of the field in the absence of Raphinha, Pedri, and De Jong, and Andreas Christensen ought to have done enough to contain Ronald Araujo for the time being. Wednesday’s game may be more difficult for Xavi’s team than it would look on paper due to Porto’s outstanding home performances and Barcelona’s troubles for Champions League victories away from their Catalan base, but the visitors’ attacking abilities should quickly show. We have faith in Barcelona to make it two wins from two in Group H despite their injury-riddled defense and the demoralizing loss to Benfica Porto suffered over the weekend.
Porto 1 – 3 Barcelona
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