Report by Kate Thompson
As I had never visited Porto before, I took the opportunity to have a few days there. The trip didn’t start well, as we had to transfer in Lisbon and the first flight was late, so that we missed our connection by only a few minutes and had to wait four and a half hours to get to Porto. We were staying in a nice hotel quite a way out from the centre, but it was an easy train ride into Porto.
Having got our match tickets we took an open-top bus tour – a bit cold even though the outside temperature was higher than the UK! We saw quite a lot of the city (town?) and I wished I had been there longer, to visit some interesting sights. We did manage one church (incredibly ornate, with enough gold leaf to illustrate several manuscripts) and the bookshop said to have inspired J K Rowling.
After something to eat we made our way to the stadium, which was very impressive apart from the dreaded net in front of us which we have had at every match in Europe, even the friendly in Stockholm. It really spoils one’s view of the game and I don’t understand why it is there, especially as there isn’t one at the KPS. As an Arsenal-supporting friend said, welcome to the Champions League!
The least said about the match the better! None of the players who came in showed anything to persuade Ranieri to include them in his first XI; even normally reliable men like Okazaki were poor and Gray, who many fans have been saying should start, did nothing to help his cause.
The one bright spark was seeing one of our Academy lads, Harvey Barnes, come on as a late substitute. I don’t blame the manager for giving these players a chance but the total lack of fight was worrying. A lot of the fans were very disgruntled, bearing in mind how much it had cost to get to the game.
We now know that we face Sevilla in the next round. This was one of the teams I wanted (along with Benfica) so that I could have another chance to see a city that is on my ‘bucket list’.