City 1 Porto 0
Match Report by Eddie Blount
Before tonight’s game Porto had played 16 Champions’ league away matches without a win. Make that 17! Although they had virtually 60% of possession it was never likely that they would break their long winless away streak given they clearly lacked any real cutting edge.
Technically capable they were like Arsenal on a bad day, showing up well as they shuttled the ball forward down either flank into the space that City leave out wide, but when faced with the sterner defending they met as they tried to get the ball into the box they simply melted away. They managed only a part handful of efforts on target and the returning Schmeichel was rarely troubled.
He was called upon to make a good save from a bouncing long-range second-half strike and was beaten by substitute Corona’s shot on the volley from a cross he half punched away and which deflected off Albrighton to smash against the near post, but those incidents apart Schmeichel always looked a good bet for a clean sheet.
The game was of course an historic fixture, City’s first home Champions’ League match so the first scorer was going to write his name into the history books. Inevitably given his recent record against Porto it was Dragon-slayer, Islam Slimani, City’s £29 million record signing, to whom the honour fell after 25 somewhat nondescript minutes.
Slimani had much for which to be grateful to Mahrez for it was his searching cross, after Albrighton’s sumptuous cross field pass, which eluded Vardy but found Slimani stealing in at the back post to head firmly past Casillas. Like Schmeichel Casillas had a straight-forward night’s work but the greater quality and threat of City going forward meant that he always needed to be on his toes.
So this was not the most spectacular match of the season, indeed the least watchable – from a football point of view – of the games since the Hull debacle, but it was one we deserved to win. The reasons for the absence of spectacle were twofold : Porto and the referee!
Porto were very inclined to fall over at the slightest hint of robust physical contact and even more inclined to pressure the referee en masse to see things their way. This we can probably put down to their greater experience of the Champions’ League. The referee from Turkey had a simple philosophy – book as many as possible in the first half so I get no trouble in the second. And it worked!
The crowd were extremely nervous whenever Vardy and Slimani, both booked for relatively trivial first half transgressions, made contact with an opponent or even seemed likely to and it seemed inevitable that the referee would be the leading player in this drama. To an extent he was, not by reducing the number of players on the field but simply by the threat of it! I cannot believe that this is good refereeing.
Interesting that in spite of a buoyant, pulsating atmosphere at the start – so much so that we could hardly hear the much vaunted Champions’ league music – the game mutated into a defensive stalemate.
From some way out City decided to hold what they had, believing no doubt that they had the measure of Porto’s attacking potential. They were right! In spite of a flurry of unproductive corners (unlike in one recent game I could mention) City comfortably held on for the win and the three precious points that bring them a step closer to qualifying for the later stages.
In terms of who played well I should mention the improved performance of Hernandez at right back – his best game for the club- and another good stint in a home game by young Amartey. In away games against top half teams we cannot, without Kante, play 4-4-2. Interesting that Ranieri’s first substitution in this match was to take off striker Slimani and replace him with midfielder King
Verdict: historic but forgettable
City: Schmeichel, Hernandez, Morgan, Huth Fuchs, Mahrez (Gray 88), Drinkwater, Almartey, Albrighton, Slimani (King 82), Vardy (Musa 90 +3)
Porto: Casillas, Layun, De Almeida Monteiro, Sierra, Telles, Oliver (Corona 78), Danilo, Adrian (da Silva 63), Bas Andre (Herrera 63), da Silva Monteiro, Valente Silva
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation